Stranded
by Kisu Pure
Summary: A foolhardy Padawan steals a ship when her mistress is sent into battle, and in attempts to join the fray, she finds herself in a star system that time forgot... OC/OC.
1. 00

**A.N;** So here I go again, with the over-used theme of girl-gets-stuck-in-Middle-earth. But I get bored, so let's see if I can come up with a plot. No Mary-Sue-ishness, and I'll try to steer clear of too much angst... oke? Oke.  
**  
summary;** A foolhardy Padawan steals a ship when her mistress is sent into battle, and in attempts to join the fray, she finds herself in a star system that time forgot...

* * *

Leave it to her to get hit in just the right spot while trying to figure out the hyperdrive on the little star fighter she found in the hangar of the Jedi Temple. Because these ships were so small, the vessels had to hook up to an external hyperdrive and go from there.

Dozens of other ships piloted by Jedi and clones alike raced past her as she was pummeled by blaster fire. What in the hell was she doing? It seemed to just be a sudden fear of returning to Coruscant with a battered ship, ready to face the punishment of her mistress and Master Windu.  
Adai Seth nervously fumbled with the controls in the tiny cockpit, trying to figure out how to get away from the hectic scene of the battle. She had only been among the fleet for maybe ten minutes before enemy fighters found her. In a panic, she raced for one of the external hyperdrives in attempts to escape.

Suddenly the hyperdrive powered up and she was moving a zillion miles an hour.

"Good thing I've got you, R4. You're probably my only hope in getting back," the Padawan mumbled, and was scornfully beeped at in reply.

Adai was busy trying to keep her hands from shaking, and coming up with tactful ways to respond to the masters' angry scolding and punishment for stealing a ship in store for her upon the return, when suddenly her ship lurched and the stream of systems and stars halted, revealing the familiar spheres of light.   
The girl looked around through the thick glass of her cockpit, and suddenly her eyes grew frantic again.

"R4! Where are we?" she asked, looking around her for any recognizable landmarks that would reveal her whereabouts.  
The black-and-white-domed droid beeped again.  
"Yes, I know I didn't give you any coordinates! But... c'mon! Don't tell me we're headed for a completely arbitrary point in space? The hyperdrive is broken, isn't it," the Padawan snapped at the mechanical aide.

The droid made a noise that portrayed a programmed sense of fear and worry. Adai's stomach plummeted.

"How much power do we have left, R4."  
Beep. The small screen in her cockpit suddenly displayed all of her ship's vital signs: amount of fuel left, remaining oxygen, parts damaged, external devices, etc.  
"That's just enough to..." Adai glanced again at the planets around her, most of which looked uninhabitable.

But one small, single planet caught her eye below her coasting ship. Green was a good sign.

"There," she said, pointing. "I might have enough Credits for a tank of fuel, R4. I hope we can land and get off that rock in a few hours." She gulped. "We need to get back to Coruscant."

The droid beeped, and Adai took the controls again, this time with a destination in mind. She guided the little star fighter, now in considerable disrepair, towards the lonely planet, bearing only a single moon. She left the external hyperdrive within the orbit of the planet once they got closer, so she could take it on the return.

Adai looked at the green surface of the planet again, it's two visible continents and vast oceans. This time worry crawled back into her mind. "R4..." she said slowly, "What planet is this?"  
The droid tootled a bit.  
"What do you mean," she said.  
It seemed to whimper this time.  
"What do you mean you don't know!" she shouted.  
R4 screeched.

The young pilot suddenly felt nauseus as she drew in closer to the planet's surface. She still saw only green, and blue, and dots of white clouds. But there was no other choice: she had to land here, or risk getting stranded in the middle of space. Her communication system was dysfunctional from the damage done to the ship, and her fuel was running low... she must have stolen a ship already running on the dregs.  
There seemed to be a stable atmosphere, she noted, but it looked uninhabited. How long could she last? Twelve food capsules would feed her for... yep, twelve days. And that's on sparse rations.  
Perhaps she could send out a distress signal, so that any passerby would know she's stranded here? No... that entire part of the ship was hit. No communication, expect between her, and her little R4 unit.

"Looks like it's just me and you," she said as they began to enter the atmosphere.

The three minutes it took to get through the atmosphere was smoother than she expected. But her mistress told her that some were denser than others.  
They shot down through the clouds, and a small red light started flashing; their fuel was dangerously low. She wouldn't be able to navigate while in the atmosphere to try and find civilization; she had to settle for what was right in front of her: snow capped mountains.

"Hang on R4..."

The mountains rushed up on them, and they were steeper than she expected. With a sudden acceleration, she dodged one of the peaks and without time to take evasive action, she plowed right into a massive snowbank.

Somewhere not too far away, in a peaceful little valley, a thunderous boom sounded in the distance... 

TBC

* * *

So there you have it. The first chapter to my improvisational tale of this fabulously dreadful crossover.  



	2. 01

Slowly, but surely the world came back to Adai Seth. The young girl peeled her face off the control panel of her Jedi star fighter, head pounding. The skin hurt where various buttons and controls left their mark... she groaned and blinked a few times, but the cockpit was completely dark. Adai felt her head and her probing fingers discovered a rather nasty lump on the right side of her cranium where, presumably, she slammed into the control panel from the impact.

Adai shook her head and tried to think. Why everything dark? She looked up through the glass and noted faint traces of light filtering through something blueish. Oh that's right... the snowbank. She couldn't be that far beneath the powdered ice because light still reached her, though just barely. After spending a moment or two collecting herself one more time, she turned and groped for a broad, smooth button near the side of her seat. Her fingers ran over many other ones, but they found what they were looking for and she pushed it.

The cockpit opened slowly, from the weight of the snow. Tons more fell in, and the strikingly cold ice almost burned Adai's exposed skin. The blinding light of the nearby sun relentlessly attacked her, and she shut her eyes, before opening them again slowly, and standing up. Other than the chill breeze that caressed her cheek, the air was not that cold. The sun shone brightly, and she clambered out of the ship.

With snow crunching under her boots, she looked at the surrounding landscape. There was snow. Everywhere. And where there wasn't snow, there was exposed, harsh rock.

Looking down, she suddenly remembered the droid.

"Oh no, R4!" she said, rushing to the side of the ship where he was. She dropped to her knees at the spot where she thought the droid would be and started digging furiously. After a short while her hands felt metal, and Adai started to dig the snow out from around the dome.

She sat back on her knees and breathed a sigh of relief as the thing came to life, beeping.

"I'm so sorry, R4... just... gimme a few hours, and I'll be back. I'll go get some help."

The droid yelled something rather uncouth at her, but she got up and ignored it. Closing the cockpit and covering it with snow again just in case anyone happened to stumble upon it, she started taking the first few steps down the mountain.

The first mile was steep and tricky; she had to pick her way carefully through the snow, judging how deep the banks were and being careful to step on the most stable ground she could find. She was starting to get cold about an hour later, as she was trying to make it down the sunny side of the mountain. But she knew that in another hour or so, the mountains would be casting frozen, dark shadows over her.

Adai's head was really beginning to pound, so much in fact that she just grabbed a handful of ice and held it to the swelling spot on her head. She wondered if Bacta would do any good.

After a while, the slope grew to a little gentler decline, and the snow wasn't as thick. Adai could still be seen piling the ice on her head, mumbling to herself as she trod down the mountain.

How could she be such an idiot? So foolish? Stealing a Jedi star fighter, thinking she could do some good alongside the infamous Obi-Wan Kenobi and that Skywalker kid of his. Adai scoffed at herself. How could she have thought she could have gotten _anywhere_ near Greivous' fleet? If the droids didn't dismantle her ship, the enemy fire would have done a great job at reducing her to dust.

And then she had to ruin a perfectly good ship. It probably wouldn't have happened if she had hijacked one with a full tank of fuel, or if she hadn't chickened out at the last minute and do the most ridiculous thing: go into hyperspace. Where? She had no clue. Just get away from the battle, get away from Coruscant and the consequences that awaited her if she decided to fly right back into that hangar. Not only would that make her look like a coward, fool, and idiot, but the Council might even do the unthinkable: release her from the Jedi Order.

Oh Force no! What horrible fate was she in for when she got back to Coruscant? **If **she got back to Coruscant? Was she really stranded here? What if this was an uninhabited planet? Her skill with the Force wasn't developed enough to detect people. She could move little things, and communicate with choice people mentally, and the only person she knew she could sense was her mistress, and that was when her shields weren't up.

"Augh!" she cried aloud. "What have you gotten yourself into this time, Adai!"

The young Padawan continued down the slope until the mountain started overshadowing her. But by then she was walking through trees, and as sparse as they were, she knew she had beaten the mountain. But Adai halted. Would she remember where the ship was? She had to make some sort of marker... so she looked to her belt, and grinned. It had to be her favorite part of being in Jedi training...

...she reached and took out her generic Padawan's light saber. It had a colorless blade, and was not as strong as the other Jedi Knights'; stronger than stun and hot enough to cauterize flesh, but it couldn't cut through metal, and it would take some effort if she tried to dismember something. And so, with her favorite thing in the world, she began shaving the bark off a few choice trees that would direct her towards the ship if she came back. Or she hoped they would help her in locating it again.

The blade vanished with a flick of her finger, and was placed back on the clip at her belt. She looked up through the trees, and realized something.

She had never left Coruscant.

Or at least as far as she could remember, she had lived on Coruscant, in the temple. The closest thing to this level of nature was the gardens that were trimmed, and de-weeded on a regular basis. Nothing too natural about maintenance.

Adai looked behind her at the mountain, trying to see where her ship might have crashed. She couldn't tell where exactly, and only guessed that it might be nearly a thousand feet up in elevation from where she stood.

But she turned around again, and headed in the opposite direction of the sun. There were far more rocks, and far less snow, and in the valley that spanned miles in each direction seemed to be one huge forest.

Or at least what she knew to be the definition of a forest:

**for-est: n **A dense growth of trees, plants, and underbrush covering a large area.

So, it seemed to fit the description pretty well. She continued on downward, trying to find a path amid the sharp, blank stones. But she sensed something as she walked along... danger, fear, and grief, for some reason.

But no sooner did she feel these emotions imprinted in the air did she see something that she had been looking for this whole time.

It was a great doorway, with stairs, leading into a big gaping blackness that made Adai feel very uneasy. Yes, it was a building, which meant that there must be some civilization on this planet... but she didn't like the looks of it. It was very, very old, and was made of the natural rock, rather than stronger, synthetic materials.

But before she thought more about it, she left and headed for the cover of the trees. Just in case.

She walked for maybe another hour or so, and the ground had nearly leveled out. Trees. Everywhere. It was very quiet, too; nothing like the noise and hustle of Coruscant. Was she liking it? Of course. But she did want to get back home. Home was priority. Even if it meant getting in the biggest trouble any Padawan had suffered in the history of the Jedi Order.

Adai marked more trees as she walked. Her feet were getting very tired, and her stomach was very empty. So she powered down her saber, sat down on a log, and popped open a food capsule from her belt.

"Mm. Chrome-flavored," she mumbled to herself as she dumped the contents into her mouth with distaste.

As she sat there, her feet started to hurt, and she had a migraine. Goody. But she had to get up again, keep walking. Now that she found evidence of inhabitants and intelligent life here, Adai was determined to find them. More than determined, actually. Her... life depended on it. Gosh, that sounded cryptic and urgent.

But true, nonetheless. She had to treat the situation like she was not going to be found, and that she had to do anything she could to get back to Coruscant independently.

But suddenly Adai had that uneasy feeling again. She jumped up, and looked around her. Yes, it was a forest. Dead silent except for birds chirping, and... was that a locust? And the gurgling of a brook not too far away.

She looked up into the trees. Was she being watched? Her grey eyes darted from tree to tree, trying to pick out something. But to no avail. She was alone, on a strange planet, and she was getting a little paranoid, that's all.

So she kept walking, marking the occasional tree, but suddenly aware of the noise it made. It wasn't much, just a sharp, thick hum of the saber blade, and the dull sound of the bark being burnt away. But eventually she stopped.

And she didn't put away her saber; she kept it in her hand, just in case, but the blade wasn't on. She kept walking through the forest, and the day was growing old, when suddenly, Adai stopped altogether. She held her breath and paused next to a tree, ears straining to grasp any sound they could.

She thought she heard... hushed voices. Coming from the trees again. It was in a language she couldn't understand, but she listened anyway. The voices were soft and calm, yet old sounding, and belonging to men. Were they dangerous? And as soon as she heard them they stopped altogether, as if they knew she was listening to them.

After a minute of keeping still and silent, she meant to start walking again, but when she turned around, there was something very sharp pointed directly between her eyes.

TBC

* * *

Oh, what fun. nn 


	3. 10

**com·pul·sion** _n._ 1. An irresistible impulse to act, regardless of the rationality of the motivation

* * *

Adai gasped. Wh-who? What? 

She stared into the eyes of her aggressors, who all had some primitive, but very dangerous, looking weapons pointed at her.

A brown-haired one said something to her in a language that she didn't understand, so she just looked nervously around. He repeated himself, though a little more firmly this time. Adai shook her head and attempted to shrug. It probably looked more like a muscle spasm.

If she could only reach for her lightsaber without them filling her face full of those sharp projectiles, she could maybe disarm them and have an escape. Slowly, slowly her hand crept to her side, and slowly, slowly, she took it off it's clip.

It was then or never...

With a sudden movement she turned on her weapon and did a sort of twirl, and before any of them could react, she had cut off the tips of their weapons, and had broken into a sprint through the trees.

...cursing herself the entire way.

There were shouts behind her, and despite her best efforts to get out of harm's reach, their sharp, scary weapons kept grazing her by less than an inch. Force, this had to be the hardest and fastest she'd run in her life. And then it came to a sad, abrupt halt when her entire body was thrown to the ground by a very thin and strategically placed cord of sorts. Her saber was thrown from her hands and before she could jump up and retrieve it, a heavy foot planted itself on her back and made damned sure she was pushed into the dirt as far as she would go.

The young padawan groaned as her wrists were tightly bound and she was yanked up from the ground and forced to walk, her incentive to stay under their control being a knife poking her in the back.

As they walked through the forest, she thought she might try and read their minds to see what exactly they had in store for her fiery little self. It took quite a bit of focus and concentration, but when she finally broke the hymen of their minds, a rush of emotions and thoughts poured into hers. She felt so many different things, but the two that caught her attention was the overwhelming feeling of fear and curiosity. Were those thoughts concerning her for the most part? That would be slightly awkward if that were the case. But what she cared about finding was feelings or intentions of ill will towards her. She didn't find any, which was a relief, but she did feel that she was going to get presented to someone important for approval when they got to their destination.

Her captors had taken to conversing in hushed whispers, but their voices were ignored as Adai's mind was filled with concern about R4 and the ship. What if someone were to stumble across it? Or stumble across R4 sticking out of the snow? Would they follow her footprints down the mountain and her markings on the trees?

No... if anyone was following her, I'm sure other folks such as these will give them the same hard time as they were giving her.

As they continued walking, she noted that the single sun had made it's way far beyond the looming mountains, and the forest was growing dark But Adai was jerked to a sudden halt as her bonds were held firmly by a strong hand. One of the captors stepped to the base of a very, very large tree and shouted a single word up into the canopy. A rope ladder was dropped and the others began to climb up. How was she going to climb up a ladder with her hands bound behind her back? That question was soon answered as she was lifted from the ground by a strong arm around her waist, and hoisted up as one of the men climbed up onto a platform high above the ground.

She was set on the floor, as the group that caught and hogtied her gathered together on the far side of the platform and spoke in hushed voices. She looked at them for a moment, but turned and looked at the surrounding trees. Adai was surprised to see a handful of other platforms in different trees, and she counted three or four other people like her captors with their weapons on each of the platforms.

But there was one platform that caught her eye; it was directly across the way, and it had eight other folk sitting on it. Each of them a different size, color, shape, you name it...

There it was again!

It was that same feeling of grief and utter hopelessness and loss that she had felt before, near to that monolithic gate in the side of the mountain. And it was emanating from the group like the reek of Bantha fodder in midday summer heat. (She had been told it was an all-too overpowering and none-too pleasant odor. Never left Coruscant, remember?)

Their heads were hung, that is, except one, who stood up and began talking with waht Adai assumed to be the leader of this entire group. She watched them carefully as the conversation grew into a quiet, yet heated, debate.

She let her eyes fall on each and every one of that company, trying to read their minds and thoughts, but the same feeling of distress and grief was what she found in all of them.

But suddenly she saw the leader point at her, and the other man look her way. He looked at her for a moment with an expression of confusion then turned back and shook his head. But the other one did not seem convinced. He kept gesturing in her direction, and speaking furiously.

Adai just wished she knew what they were talking about!

Her eyes drifted over the now seven companions still sitting down, but to her suprise, one of them lifted his head and met her gaze. This one was very small in comparison to the others, and younger, but he still was older than her, she could tell. He kept looking at her questioningly, and when she just looked back and shrugged in confusion, he tapped the one sitting next to him, who looked up and proceeded to illustrate the same facial expressions as his friend. They looked at each other and exchanged a few words before turning to her again, and they somehow managed to communicate through basic body language. The second friend proceeded to tap his neighbor's shoulder, who was not in fact his size, but far larger, but in human scale, about right.

He turned to his smaller companion and he, in turn, pointed over at Adai. He looked up and she met his gaze, but she found that she couldn't hold it for long. Something was there that made her feel slightly uncomfortable. Adai turned back to look at the smaller ones, but still all three of them were still looking at her and talking. The first small one mouthed something to her, but without being fluent in their tongue, it was useless. She shook her head. But no, he tried again, letting the shape of the words exaggerate his articulation.

By now, she was getting a little miffed at the fact that she didn't know the language of these people, and without thinking, sent him a solid, _I can't understand you,_ through the Force. She glanced at him to see if he got the message, and to her surprise, his eyes widened, and looked directly at her in question. He lightly smacked his neighbor and started talking to him. The one she had sent the message to was looking for confirmation that it was her.

Adai had to admit, she was surprised herself. Most of the messages she tried to send to strangers ended up being a stream a garbled nonsense that no one could translate, regardless of a common tongue. The padawan nodded slowly, and the small one looked down, deep in thought. After a moment of two he turned to his friend again and they began to talk.

But something in the Force nagged at her... something was coming, and she wasn't going to like it. But for now, she just had to wait, and see what was going to happen. Where was she going to be taken? When? When would she be able to have her hands back at her sides? And why didn't any of the eight on the other platform have their hands tied?

But Adai just sat there, frustrated, worried, scared, tired, and impatient. She never should have left Coruscant.

But suddenly she felt something behind her, and turned around as far as she could to see one of her captors with a knife, cutting the rope that bound her wrists tightly. When he was done he said something to her and walked over to the others again.

She moved her wrists around in circles, and felt where the cord bit into the tender skin. But the man appeared at her side again, with something in his hand. She looked up from where she sat, and saw he was returning her Jedi weapon of choice.

"My lightsaber!" she squealed, thinking that it had been left on the ground where it flew from her hands. And without thinking of the consequences, she turned it on, waving it around a little, and turned it back off. Just to make sure it still worked.

After putting it back on its clip, she noticed that everyone was looking at her. The two small friends that had been trying to talk to her just ten minutes before had their mouths open, and the larger one gazed at her with piqued curiosity and wonder.

"Idiot," she mumbled to herself.

Adai wished she could just hide and disappear in her brown Jedi robes. She hung her head low so she didn't have to meet everyone's gaze at once. There was no way now that she could have someone escort her back to her ship without completely destroying their sense of intimacy they had with their little planet, completely unaware of the galaxy around them or the war raging only a short distance from their star system. It would ruin them. To expose them to such technology while their culture was still in it's infancy would simply be cruel.

What was she going to do? These people haven't even discovered electricity yet, let alone advanced machinery.

Adai sighed.

The darkness of night had enveloped them, the only light being that of a single silver lantern on each platform. She suddenly noticed that everyone was hushed, and a few of the company across the way had drifted asleep. That was good. They weren't all looking at her anymore. But the Force tugged at her mind again, and she began to hear something... like, the sound of hundreds of feet pounding the ground.

The other people, the guard-types, were at alert, and standing near the edge of the platforms, gazing below; their long, elegantly deadly weapons poised. The thundering feet grew louder below them, and hideous noises came with it. Adai peered over the edge to see black figures running on the ground. There had to be at least a hundred of them. But the guards didn't shoot; everyone held their breath, waiting for them to pass beneath them. And eventually they did.

Adai sat back as the noise and danger subsided, and the Force let her be for the time being. She was extremely tired after walking several miles that day, after going through the trouble to steal a ship and go into battle with it...

The young Padawan yawned. It had to be way past her curfew at the Temple.

She let gravity take her to the floor of the platform where she curled into a ball and thought about if her Mistress and if any other Jedi had started wondering where she was...

...before falling fast alseep.

TBC


	4. 11

**in·tro·spec·tion** _n. _1. Contemplation of one's own thoughts, feelings, and sensations; self-examination.

* * *

The seafoam eyes gifted to Adai Seth opened at each their different paces as sleep was literally shaken from her by an impatient hand. The forest was back and the morning upon them, as the Padawan axiously glanced around to try and recall just where she was. The hand didn't release itself from her shoulder until she removed it herself and stood up, shooting a harsh and tired look at one of her captors. 

He just gave her a sarcastic glance in return, before turning and speaking with his fellows in that elegant language of theirs.

It was tons more pleasing to the ear, she noted, than Basic. But... the reason she could only pay attentioned to the sounds of it in the first place was because her brain couldn't automatically understand the syntax. Well, that was her reasoning at least.

She rubbed her head, which still hurt a little from the crash, and as well as the rest of her, from sleeping on the floor. Luckilly, it never got too cold at night. Adai glanced back over to the flet where the solemn group of eight had been the evening before, and noticed they had gone. Where did they go? She peered over the edge to see if they were on the ground, but found they were nowhere to be seen. She suddenly had the impulse to meet the three she had interacted with the night before. She wanted to know who they were, why they were here and why they were treated much the same as her save for the bondage.

But then she remembered why in the Force she was here in the first place: to get fuel, get back to her ship, and to get off this planet before they gaveher presence too much thought.

Adai sighed and gave a look to her captors that exaggerated her impatience and confusion, and a moment later they broke up and headed down the ladder; her in the middle. They still considered her to be a potential threat? But that was only natural. Just the technology and destructive potential within her simple weapon was awe-inspiring as she compared it to their primitive weaponry... with her skill as a Jedi-in-training, she could probably take out scores of these guard-type warriors before even getting a scratch.

Only a few months before, her Mistress had introduced her to the art of throwing one's lightsaber for a long-range attack, and guiding itby means of the Force. Though it took her a few weeks, Adai eventually began to master the basics of the art, and could even throw her own lightsaber in a wide arc and return it to herself, catching it by the hilt. It was a thrilling discovery, and just the thought of practicing again made her want to return to Coruscant even more; no matter what the consequences.

Adai walked along, in between her captors in a single file line through the towering trees as the golden light of morning fell on them like a warm summer rain. She inhaled deeply, and delighted in the fact that she could smell no chemicals or pollutants in the air: just the folliage and a sweet aroma from an unseen source. As they trod along in silence, small, white flowers began to dot the ground, and the sweet smell grew in intensity. The trees were growing in girth as well.

Just the sheer beauty of the scene made her nearly forget about R4 and the Jedi star fighter up in the mountain. She wondered if the synthetic alloy would begin to rust if she let the tiny vessel sit in the ice for too long... no, those things were built for harsh climates and rugged terrain and such. The Jedi Knights used them for transport on most of their missions, no matter what type of planet they were being sent to. Well, usually.

Anyways, the small company walked without halting for nearly all morning, until seemingly out of nowhere, the forest broke away and a valley of breath-taking beauty appeared before them. Adai glanced behind them for a moment, and saw the mountains she hiked down from looming in the distance. They had to be at least thirty miles away. Turning her attention to the scape before her, she saw more towering trees, though like nothing she had ever laid eyes on before. These trees were enormous: two, three hundred feet tall, some twenty-five feet in diameter at the base. The white flowers were everywhere now, their delicate scent lightly lingering in the air around them. Her captors were speaking again, and a phrase caught her attention. Something in the Force told her that it was the name of this place: _Caras Galadhon_. But it would still be another good thirty minutes before they crossed the wide openess of the valley and reached the other side.

And, well, that's what they did.

As soon as she stepped into that wood, she felt different. Adai didn't know what, (she would probably have to meditate on it) but she knew she felt different. The feel of the forest itself was almost dreamlike... old, whimsical, sad. The gold of the daylight didn't reach the forest floor so much as a mysterious silver glow from countless lanterns in buildings in the trees high above. There was a rich, green grass and moss that carpeted the forest floor like an emerald velvet: moist and cool from the occasional shower. But structures began to appear. Some built a man's height off the ground on a thick branch reaching out from one of the trees, accessable by an elegant and winding staircase that hugged the trunk of the organism it was built upon. Thenshe started seeing more. And more. And larger buildings, some in clusters, and some located high in the canopy. Soon they were walking on a path paved with silver stones, and other people of this bizarre and wonderful culture were seen more often. They bore uncanny resemblance to her own race, Humans, but there were sublte emotional differences she could detect through the Force.

Their path grew wider, and she saw more folk: some of them glanced up from their quiet, soft conversations to look up and gaze upon her with a subtle and gentle scrutiny that made her almost melt and cringe at the same time.

As they continued to walk, Adai saw the greatest tree of all that she had seen so far. It's staircase wide enough to acommodate five people, shoulder to shoulder. A silver lantern was hung at every post on the staircase. They began the slow and steady climb upwards into the canopy of trees, and when they got far enough, Adai saw that there seemed to be a whole other community built far above the ground. There was a network of buildings and homes, and bridges strung between them. But up and up they climbed, until finally, at last, they came to a great platform in the crown of one of the trees. The thing was shaped like a thick ring, with guards everywhere. She suddenly felt intimidated; truly intimidated by something just then. A presence, or something... but it intruded her mind, and she didn't like it. At all.Adai immediately threw up her sheilds in attempts to keep whatever it was **out**, but suddenly...

...She appeared.

TBC

* * *

I'm sorry. That's all you poor folks are going to get as chapter endings for this story: cliffhangers. I'm so evil! I think I'm going to change the rating for this as well as the "general" to "romance". Because, well. I'm a sucker for all of that. And deep down, you know you are too. 

Read and review, people! Come on! What do I gotta do to make you do such a quick and simple thing to let me know how I'm doing? Gosch.


	5. 100

**awe **_n. _1. A mixed emotion of reverence, respect, dread, and wonder inspired by authority, genius, great beauty, sublimity, or might

_

* * *

Oh Force_, Adai Seth thought to herself as the more prominent of two figures approached the group, eyeing her carefully. She was so incredibly beautiful. More beautiful than many of the holos she'd seen in the Library of queens of different starsystems. Flawless skin completely devoid of any paint or artificial color; so clean and pristine that she seemed to have a silver glow just like everything else in the mysterious city.

Oh, and when she opened her mouth to speak, the Force just tremored about her very being as the words passed from her mouth to the ear. The Force was very strong with her. As the Padawan stood, gazing intently at the woman as she addressed the five of them, but then the strangest thing happened: Adai heard her voice echo in her mind. Or... was it her voice? Because if it were her voice, then that meant she was speaking, and if she were speaking, then she wouldn't be able to undesrstand her... but she did. So maybe it were a string of thoughts that articulated exactly what she wanted to get across.

Adai knew exactly what the woman was telling her through this non-verbal communication. Perhaps a series of images and universal thoughts were used to convey the syntax and structure and emphasis that one would normally already translate in their brains when someone was speaking to them in a common language.

Adai found herself bowing with her captors when the woman was finished. Who exactly was she? Adai caught her name in the stream of consciousness that was their conversation: _Galadriel_.

And before she could even begin to comprehend the buzz just from being in the presence of that woman, Galadriel, she was ushered from the flat by the guards and led down the hundreds of stairs that made up the winding staircase. The day was wearing on, she knew, but the light of the sun barely reached them, and... and... (she had a tough time putting her finger on it) time just seemed to... come to a near halt here. That was something she noticed as soon as she set foot in the forest.

They walked a bit down a few paths, and across a bridge, and just as Adai thought that maybe her captors were taking her back out to the forest, she heard voices from a small pavillion nestled between three magnificent trees. Upon closer inspection, she saw a fountain in the middle, and in the arms of the roots of each tree, there were beds and small tables with platters of food, water and whatnot.

She noticed gentle, lamenting voices in the air, as if there was a chorus singing a hymn somewhere far away in the forest.

But Adai was suddenly stopped, and the leader of her captors gave a quick and slightly cool farewell before walking off with his group, leaving her there at the entrance to the pavillion. Adai slowly tread down the path, careful not to make any noise for some reason. Creeping around the corner of one of the trees, she got a good, inconspicuous look at eight familiar individuals as they were laying out their things in the wonderous living space. She was suddenly very intruiged by these people; their postures, their mannerisms and behavior... all of it seemed to interest her beyond her reasoning.

Adai closed her eyes and reached out and felt them again With two of them, curiosity; with another, hopelessness; three others radiated with protective minds; another felt sad, but determined; and the last... the last one she couldn't read.

She opened her eyes and ducked away back around the tree so that she was hidden from everyone in the pavilion. Adai was deposited there, so that meant she had to stay there? She sighed. She didn't want to share a living space with complete strangers. That was ridiculous! Especially if they were all male... that would just be too awkward. Adai would refuse to stay there.

She turned and peeked back around the tree at the two small humanoids sitting on the ground as the other members of the company busied themselves. She watched them for a moment before deciding to do something particularly stupid: send them a message.

_Come here,_ she thought, guiding the cerebral command to where they sat. She watched them and almost laughted as they looked around in confusion. She knew they knew it was her, and before long they got up and went looking for her. As much a fun little game that could have turned out to be, she decided against it, and instead, directed them towards where she hid.

_Behind the tree on the far side of the pavilion._

Adai watched them run over the grass as they finally saw her. When she wass right next to them, she finally saw how small they really were. They didn't have shoes on, and their feet were built differently than normal humans.

She had to shush them when they both started talking at once; to her and each other. The one with lighter hair pointed at her saber hilt and said something in an eccentric manner. The other one lightly smacked him on the side of the head and scolded him, she assumed.

After a moment, they both stopped and looked to her, waiting for a reply. She decided to prove to them she didn't have a clue as to what they were saying by saying something in Basic.

_"Look. I can't understand you. I don't know your language, I don't know where I am or how to get back home. I do need help in getting fuel for my ship that crashed in the mountains that way,"_ --she pointed westward here-- _"and I don't think that your planet is advanced enough to provide that, so I'm staying here and I'm going to see how things turn out. If I have to stay here for a while, that's fine, I can manage. But If I get rescued, that would be even better. No offence to your adorable little planet, but I really need to get back to Coruscant. They might give me the boot from the Jedi Order if I'm gone too long."_

She stopped there, and carefully watched the faces of the two characters. They just looked at her, and then to the ground. One looked at though he were thinking about what she meant, and the other looked as though he were thinking about what her not knowing their language meant. The slightly more introspective-looking one finally sighed and said something to his friend, before turning back to her. He looked her up and down and said something again, before walking behind her and pushing her out from behind the tree down into the openess of the pavilion.

_Stop! What are you doing?_ She sent the thought urgently. But before she could hide in the cover of the foliage, her little friends had called to the others of the company.

"Looks like your presence isn't going to remain unnoticed," Adai mumbled to herself.

TBC

* * *

R&R, dammit. 


	6. 101

**anx·i·e·ty **_n._ 1. A state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties.

* * *

The moment she saw one of the others look up at her, she made a mad dash behind a tree. 

Oh, such cowardice in a Padawan would undoubtably prevent her from becoming a decent Jedi Knight.

That was if she was even allowed to finish her training! Augh!

She closed her eyes and pressed her back up against the smooth bark of the tree. Her eyes were shut so tightly, she started to give herself a headache. One problem either becoming a larger prolem, or attracting a bunch of other little problems. Just as her hand went to rub one of her temples, she felt something at her shoulder, and instinctively grabbed her lightsaber and flicked the switch.

Before she knew it, the largish figure was backed away considerably, with the corner hem of his cloak on the ground in a smouldering shred of fabric.

She glanced around and turned it off, putting it back on her belt. He and the two small ones just looked at her, their mouths open.

It was about that time when the previous compulsion of hers to run away and hide came back suddenly. There was no way she was going to survive here. No way. No possible way, with her sudden bursts of fiery fervor. With her technology, with her knowledge. As fascinating as these people were, there was no... no beating around this particular bush: they were inferior. Inferior! They seemed to her to be inferior in every way, from their hygeine, to their weapons, to their architecture, to their... their everything.

Were they even aware of the war in the galaxy around their planet?

Were they even aware of the galaxy? _At all_?

Her eyes darted from nervous and questioning face to nervous and questioning face. She read fear and uncertainty on their minds. There was other stuff too, but she didn't feel like delving deeper. Adai took a step closer to the larger member of the party, but soon stopped in her tracks when he held something long, sharp, and glistening toward her. She could tell he wasn't going to cut her neck on the spot; his fingers had a loosened grip on the pommel of his weapon, and it was tilted downward. He was just being cautious. He just got the corner of his cloak burned off, after all.

The Padawan approached him again, holding up her hands. Perhaps... she could use the Force? Not to fight back... just to see if she could do it...

Without letting her hands out of his sight, she slowly took another step closer, and focused on the metallic weapon in his hand. Focus. A cerebral image of the blade being wrenched from his grip came up in her mind's eye. Focusing on that thought, she willed it to happen. With every fibre of her being, she willed it to happen.

With palms outward, she gently twitched her fingers, and the man's eyes widened as he felt a gentle pulling on his weapon. She saw his grip on the thing tighten, and slowly upped the dosage. Before long he had both of his hands on the pommel and was pulling back with all his might. But to the Padawan's surprise, he wasn't angry, or frightened, or malicious. He was fascinated. And so were the other two, who had taken to huddling close together and watching from a safe distance.

Then, suddenly, he had let go of the blade. Adai Seth's hands were trembling now, as this was one of the largest objects she had ever manipulated using the Force. But the three of them gasped when the blade hovered between Adai and the other man, remaining perfectly still in the air, free of any visible support. He reached out and touched his weapon, and it yielded to his finger and he gently poked the pommel. She wasn't quite strong enough to keep it rock solid in the air.

Using her hands, she carefully maneuvered the weapon blade-first into the soil between them. She put her hands down and caught her breath. The man, still in a stupor and looking at his weapon sticking out of the ground, asked her something in a quiet tone. But before she could send him a frustrated message, the other two finally broke in, explaining her situation of non-communication to him, she assumed. He said something back (it was a quick, single syllable word that she mouthed to herself, pondering the meaning), and the two others promptly replied.

Adai sat on the ground while catching her breath, nearly smiling to herself at what she just did. If she could make progress on her own... did she even need another Jedi to train her? Adai shook her head and scolded herself. That sort of thinking didn't agree with the Code. That sort of thinking would lead her to the... other side.

Adai's train of thought jumped the tracks when she felt a hand on her shoulder again, only this time she refrained from pulling out her saber. It was the same guy, but this time he was kneeling next to her, and she soon realized the other two were as well. Without averting his eyes from hers, he pointed to himself, and said something very slowly; a word she assumed to be his name: Boromir.

He pointed to the other two in turn, and they said their names syllable by syllable as well.

Meriadocbrandybuck, and Peregrintook.

They seemed a bit long, so she sent them both the idea of shortening.

In that case, their names were Merry and Pippin. (Much easier to digest.)

The three of them then pointed to her, and she sighed, but said her name anyways.

"Adai Seth."

TBC

* * *

I know people are reading this. I have hundreds of hits to prove it. So don't try and fool me, because I know that you know that I know that you don't want to review because you're a lazy lot. 

Lazy, lazy lazy.


	7. 110

**im·pro·vise** _v._ 1. To invent, compose, or perform with little or no preparation.

* * *

Now, normally, Adai Seth would have assumed that after meeting a new person, you would begin a conversation. Getting to know that person. Where they're from. What they're like. What their favorite club was. 

But could she do that here?

Nope.

The only way she could communicate with anyone here was through stream of consciousness. But at the moment, that form could only be used one way.

The Padawan's rump was getting damp from the grass the four of them had taken to sitting on, and she was there listening to them talk to each other in quiet voices. Her gaze drifted from eachof them and up into the canopy where she saw more homes and buildings high in the trees. The subtle glow of their lanterns illuminated the foliage with an eerie and esoteric silver light.

She had given up listening to them, although she found it easier totake in the sounds of their voices. That was rather interesting. There was a gentle tap on her arm and she turned to see Merry had scooted up a bit more, looking like he wanted to ask a question. He grabbed a stick and, finding a dirt patch near them, began drawing something. When he was done, he motioned for Adai to see. She stood up, walked around Boromir and Pippin who were also looking, and looked closely at the pictograms in the ground.

There were two simple figures scrawled in the earth, one smaller than the other. She could easilly tell one was supposed to represent her, and the other was Merry. Above their heads was an arrow that pointed from Adai's head to his. _Her sending messages to him._ Then beneath that was another set of figures, only this time, the arrow went from Merry's head to her ear. What was he trying to explain? The fact that she couldn't understand their language was well established, andhe knew they couldn't use the Force to mentally communicate thoughts. She could feel their auras and read their emotions, though.

Adai shrugged, and Merry, huffed. Pippin asked him something, and he answered. Pipping suddenly grabbed her hands and placed the palms of her hands on his temples. The Padawan had and idea at what he was trying to get to, and so sent him an image depicting the two of them sitting, with Adai's hands on his temples; both of their eyes closed. Colors and shapes and memories and images of people eminated from his head, and a feeling of understanding flowed from her to him. _Can I read your thoughts?_

The small humanoid suddenly jumped up ecstatically and started nodding, and Adai thought.

Could she read his mind... could she? She hadn't tried it before. It would certainly make communication much easier, and once she got the hang of it, it would be almost as natural as a verbal conversation. As she turned her attention to the three around her again, she almost laughed at how thrilled they were at the fact that she understood Merry's question. Once they saw her smile, they calmed down a bit and smiled back.

Adai pulled herself up onto her knees and gestured for Pippin to get a little closer. She put her hands on his shoulders and closed her eyes. The other two watched and were quiet.

_I'm going to read your mind._

She felt him nod.

_Think something that's vivid to you. I don't care what it is._

Opening an eye for a moment, she saw him give a look to Merry before closing his eyes too, furrowing his brow in concentration.

It was dull at first; all she saw was colors. She was surprised at how bright and vivid the greens were. There were earthy reds and browns, and swirls of colorful light. The soup of color began to take form. She watched as people materialized... men, women, children. And lights. Fireworks. Trees, and grass, and then she began to hear things. There was music, and cheering, and laughing. It was a great party... the smell of delicious food filled her nose, and she found herself breathe in deeply as if there was a roast right in front of her. But suddenly the scenery abruptly went dark. There was panic, and she could tell it was night. There was a horrible screeching, and she saw a face on the ground. The rest of his was wrapped up tightly while a pair of eyes looked up at the sky with pain and a sense of lifelessness. Adai shuddered and the scene changed again. It was bright, and welcoming, and peaceful. She saw tall people with long hair and gentle faces, and gardens. She heard water in the background constantly. She was suddenly taken to a meeting of sorts. The mood was stifling. But the memory Pipping was re-living was near to the end, and she only heard the verdict. She heard "Nine Walkers" and "Nine Riders" from another humanoid sitting in the head chair, and (looking through Pippin's eyes) saw eight other men standing around her. Four of them had below-average statures, and the other four were tall. She recognized Boromir and Merry in the group. Pippin felt aphrehension. But the scene changed several more times, and she caught glimpses of the nine figures in the wilderness. Pippin half-thought through another memory that she couldn't interpritate as well as the others. There was darkness and fire, and fear. In the middle of it all, she saw a blinding white light, and then it was gone. Adai suddenly opened her eyes as the memory ended and Pippin shuddered under her grip on his shoulders. His hands went to his eyes, and he sniffled a little bit. Merry embraced him and said something softly. Adai knew she had tapped into a painful memory. And judging from the vividity, she knew that it was still fresh in his mind.

_I'm sorry,_ she sent. _I'm so sorry._

TBC

_

* * *

_

Ah! The shortness! The brevity! Oh well. It felt like a good time to end the chapter.  
Oh, and before I forget: If anyone is interested in beinga beta for another one of my stories, Fate & Purpose, don't hesitate to speak up if you're interested. 


	8. 111

**A.N.; **It's probably not the best idea to introduce too many main characters and sub-plots into a story, but what the hell. I'm a rule-breaker at heart.

**I.H.N.:** Ah, yes. You've noted Adai's rather fiery and sheltered personality. Trust me: being a most devoted fan to Tolkien's world of Arda, I wouldn't dare underestimate the inhabitants of Middle-earth. And don't worry... the plot will work. Just gimme some time. (And a thousand apologies for posting a response so late.)

* * *

**com·mon **_adj. _1. Belonging equally to or shared equally by two or more

* * *

Adai felt like reaching out to poor Pippin who was crying now, trying his darndest to stay quiet about it. But then she remembered that she didn't even know him. She didn't even know him, and she had just unearthed a horrible memory of his. Adai just stayed put where she was on the ground about two feet away from the two small humanoids, watching. Boromir touched her arm, and began to say something, but caught himself as he remembered the language barrier. He asked Merry, instead, the question, to which he replied one word as his own eyes grew red: "Moria." 

She looked over at the man a pace away from herself. He bowed his head and closed his eyes, uttering something sad.

She felt very awkward, and couldn't take the atmosphere. It was probably best that she gave them some peace anyways. The Padawan suddenly stood up._ I'll go now_, the sent to them. And before any of them could respond, she had turned on her heel and began walking away from the Pavillion in as remote a direction she could find.

Adai Seth trod along a path that led her down a gently sloping decline and wove through ferns and giant tree trunks. Eventually she found herself standing on a white bridge that spanned the length of a large water hole. After absentmindedly gazing through the dark clear water of the lake, she sank down to the floor of the bridge and put her back to the railing. And sighed.

She began going through her utility belt, counting her food capsules, checking the contents of her pockets. But in the very back pouch she found something that made her more excited than anything else so far: a comlink. Adai couldn't help but grin as she held the piece of cold metal in her hand. She had never been so happy to see something that she had always taken advantage of. After glancing around to make sure she was alone, the Padawan pressed a small button on the side and spoke.

"R4. Can you hear me R4?"

She let go of the button and waited for a reply. A few seconds later she heard static and white noise, and then a familiar series of beeps. Adai gave a sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank the Force, R4! I'm so sorry I haven't come back yet. I've been captured, sort of, and I don't know if they'll let me go."

All she heard in reply was more static.

"R4?"

Nothing.

"R4? Come in R4!"

Again, nothing.

Adai closed her eyes and gave a sigh of frustration, letting her head hit the side of the bridge. She stuffed the comlink back into her belt. It seemed like a long while that she sat there in the quiet, her boiling blood beginning to cool down as she listened to the birds. Would she ever be able to return to Coruscant now? She didn't even feel like thinking about it.

But suddenly she was wet. The padawan felt the back of her head and noticed that it was water; and upon turning around she saw a boy in the lake below. What was that for?

He called up to her, treading water.

Adai just pointed to her ear and made an exaggerated shrug.

The young man's brows knitted and he spoke again, this time in a completely different language. "_Lle rangwa amin?_"

The girl shook her head and stood up. She sent him the same message just as she had been sending everyone else. He looked at her with amazement, then smiled suddenly, and closed his eyes. Adai wondered what he was doing, when suddenly a thought hit her. Literally.

_Can you understand me now?_

Adai Seth gasped in astonishment. How... who... what in the Force just happened? He was no Jedi, or even a Jedi-in-training, and he could use the Force to send messages like that? The padawan was almost ecstatic. She ran down the other side of the short bridge and around to the bank of the lake, where he met her in the water.

_How do you do that?_ she asked, kneeling on the grass.

_It is a gift of our kind._

_Your kind?_

_The Eldar_, he sent. _But you are not one of the Elves. How is it that you can do this also?_

_I have been trained in the ways of an ancient order by men and women called the Jedi._

_The Jedi... I have not heard of it. Would you tell me more?_

Adai smiled_. Certainly._

She thought it so strange to carry on a mental conversation like that. The two just looked at each other the entire time, their mouths unmoving. Passerby would've thought the two were engaged in a staring contest.

After a few minutes of explaining what the Jedi order was and thinking up a few images for him to see, he seemed intrigued. Captivated by the explanation of the Order. She had to leave much of it out, she felt, especially the technology aspect. When he asked where this order was, she was forced to answer "far away".

_Come swim with me_, he thought, grinning. _The water is warm._

_Swim?_

_Yes! Why... you do not know how?_

Adai shook her head. Of course she knew how. The temple and academy had many pools, and it was mandatary for every Padawan to master the skill before the age of ten._ I can't go swim in my clothes_, she thought, and he laughed.

_Of course you can. That is what I have done._ The boy gestured to his breeches submerged in water.

Adai looked down at herself, and her Jedi robes. Her hand felt up the fabric of her sleeves, up, until they reached a thin braid behind her ear. She knew there was another one behind the other ear. Oh, alright. Adai removed her belt and shoes, then her outer and inner tunic, until her undershirt and pants were left. Then slowly, she crept to the water's edge and poked her toe in. He was right: it was very warm. Standing up, she then stepped into the lake and waded in, until her feet could no longer touch the bottom. It was probably six feet at it's deepest point, but the water was amazingly clear and she could see everything. The boy tread in front of her with his legs, hardly using his arms, and laughed again. With a deep inhale, he dove under and began to swim down the length of the lake.

"Hey!" The Padawan called out in her native tongue, before taking a deep breath and following suit.

TBC


	9. 1000

**in·ter·rupt** _v. _1. To hinder or stop the action or discourse of (someone) by breaking in

* * *

The water was so calm and cool and... clean. She opened her eyes as her body floated weightlessly in the slickness of the water. She knew how to swim of course, and something like this was no rare occurrence back at the Temple. But for some reason... the water here was different. 

The padawan reached down and ran her fingers across the rich bottom, and stirred up the silt. All the world around her stood in silence and all she could hear was her own pulse through the thick transparency that hugged every inch of her body. Adai's chest began to burn and she lifted her head above the surface, and drew in another breath. Her mind was no longer weightless, and her hair clung to her face. Her clothes felt heavy.

Adai looked up as she quietly tread water, up through the silver boughs of the trees high above. The air's caress against her cheek was warm and peaceful; serenely inviting. The young Jedi smiled as she continued to gaze around the forest in a sudden humility.

_What do you smile at?_ A voice echoed in her mind. It was distant and kind, as if the owner didn't want to intrude.

Adai turned around, still not touching the bottom of the pond, and found a pair of pale slate-blue eyes looking at her. The gaze was mild and not intense at all: reflecting the tranquility of the landscape on which they looked upon every day.

_Everything, _she thought back. _I'm not so used to forests and nature as you are. It's very different... where I come from._

"_Tánamin,"_ he suddenly said, and Adai only understood the phrase because he thought out its meaning at the very same time.

"Show me," she said softly, slowly, looking down at the water and smiling at the tiny revelation. Adai looked up at him. "Show _you_." She pointed to him as she spoke the words, and he caught on.

The boy nodded.

"Show me."

"Alright..." she muttered to herself, swimming closer to him. Adai looked down at her feet as they kicked under the surface, trying to think up an image that wouldn't... freak him out too much.

_Alright. Come 'ere. _

The padawan placed her hands over his ears and temples on each side of his head, and closed her eyes.

It was the main hall that first came up. With its vaulted ceiling stories high, and the marble columns (such a wonderful rarity on Coruscant) and the bronze statues of other Jedi from the earliest days of the order. The image behaved as if it were being seen through the eyes of someone else, so naturally, the view panned from right to left casually, and even upwards, at the balconies of the three stories above. There were Jedi everywhere. Some sat on benches and read ancient texts in the form of books, others were viewing holograms. There was also a lesson being taught on the right. Thirty or so young padawans sat on the floor and listened as their instructor lectured them on one thing or another. But the viewer turned away and towards a great opening behind them.

_Do you want to see the outside?_

_I would, if you would._

Adai Seth inhaled and the observer in the previous thought began to walk through the open doors and outside.

Before them was laid the cities of Coruscant in all their splendor. Adai heard a gasp from her partner somewhere in the outside world. They looked up behind them as they walked out from the temple a bit. It was massive. Speeders, spacecrafts and other vehicles sped along invisible highways far above, and in the distance, a cruiser took off from one of the many runways built to accommodate ships of such monumental proportions.

And there the memory ended, and Adai opened her eyes, removing her hands from the boy's head. He looked at her strangely, as if he didn't believe what he just saw.

A silence passed over them and the two continued to look at each other.

_That is where you are from?_ He asked. The thought was faint. Confused.

_You can't tell this to anyone._

_They wouldn't believe me if I did._

Adai smiled lightly at this. She suddenly felt dangerous. She felt like a walking taboo. He couldn't let her secret get out. She knew that none of the residents of this planet would believe in most of the things he saw in the thought, but still. It could still endanger her.

_What's your name, by the way?_

"_Anessen," he said. "Essa en lle?"_

She blinked, assuming he asked her what hers was in return. "Adai Seth?"

He pointed to her and said her name. "Adai Seth..." The padawan smiled at his accent.

Suddenly, there was a shout from her right. Adai jerked her head in the direction of the abrupt noise, and saw a man standing down the path. He stayed still, and she read an aura of anger around him.

"_Tula sinome, Anessen. Usidhril!"_ His tone was cold and commanding.

Anessen closed his eyes and groaned before hastily swimming to the bank and stepping out of the water. He lifted his head and answered the man. _"Amin hiraetha. Tullen adar!" _

He didn't bother wringing out his pants as he ran across the bridge towards the man.

_I'll be back, I promise._

The two walked off, and Adai could've sworn that she heard the man cruelly scolding the boy, and she was left in the pond by herself.

TBC


	10. 1001

**sol·ace **_n._ 1. Comfort in sorrow, misfortune, or distress; consolation.

* * *

Adai lay on her back, floating in the cool water of the clear pond. She gazed up through the trees, and for a moment, forgot about Anessen. She could see little bits of sky through the canopy, and could tell that the sun was setting. A cool breeze wandered through the huge tree trunks, a herald announcing the coming of nightfall. A few minutes later, the Padawan shivered. 

After a moment, she took a breath, then exhaled deeply, so that she started to sink to the bottom of the pond. She kept still and her eyes open as she rested on the silt-laden bottom, gazing up through the water at the trees again. She remained there for another thirty seconds or so, weightless, thoughtless, suspended in time and space, before having to surface again when her lungs started to burn. The chill air that greeted her wet skin felt like ice, and she shrunk back into the water, though it provided her with little warmth.

She couldn't stay in the water for much longer, or else she'd freeze, and she didn't want to get out, because she'd freeze. Life was so difficult sometimes.

The water was just cold enough that she guessed she could get hypothermia from remaining too long in it, even though it was only about twenty degrees cooler than her internal body temperature.

She hovered anxiously in the water for a few moments, gazing longingly at her outer garments tossed on the grassy shore of the pond. With a quick, skyward glance, she decided to get out.

Oh Force the air was cold. She shot out her hands and bundled her wet self up in her dry clothes, a feeble attempt to guard herself from the onslaught of the cool breeze. She darted around and across the bridge, down the path, and back in the direction of the Pavilion. At least she wouldn't be sleeping with complete strangers.

Night was falling fast on her heels as she ran down a little hill and into the wide basin of the Pavilion. There was a fountain in the center that bubbled benignly, and lanterns were lit inside the bedrooms nestled in the roots of the trees.

Pippin looked up and saw her, but didn't rush over to her. He just continued what he was doing. Boromir saw her too, and walked over to her when she stopped in front of all eight of them, shivering like a madman. Her ears were cold, her nose was cold, and her feet were cold.

_Can you get me a blanket?_ she pleaded to no one in particular, hoping that one of them would get her something warm to put over herself. The Padawan sneezed and sniffled. Merry, who just then noticed her presence, jumped up to retrieve a thick wool blanket from a bed. He scuttled over to where she pitifully stood and handed it to her. Adai dropped her clothes on the ground and wrapped herself in the blanket tightly. After the initial relief in the warmth of the blanket around her, she sighed and sat down at the base of the fountain, covering every inch of her body except her face. Then she noticed that three of the others that she hadn't communicated with before were still looking at her strangely. Adai watched them as the tallest of the bunch, a dark haired man that looked to be in his thirties or forties, addressed Boromir without taking his eyes off her. Boromir replied.

Uncertainty, she felt. A bit of hostility? No… caution, yes. She studied the man's face, and then to the other one who was watching her, a light-haired man dressed in grey, and then to the stout one with a grizzly beard. Her eyes then drifted to the remaining two humanoids, the other two short ones. One was a bit chubby (he radiated with a defensive aura), and the other was thinner. She looked at him for a while, studying him, reading him. Adai closed her eyes to read him… and when she was finally able to do so, the energy overwhelmed her. It was dark, malicious, covered up by grief and worry. And somehow, she was able to catch his name: Frodo. It seemed that her visual analysis of this individual was an unwelcome gesture, and suddenly the dark-haired man jumped up and walked briskly over to her. She was scared of what he was going to do, and was prepared to fight back if necessary, but it didn't come to that. Boromir caught his shoulder and said something to him, which seemed to calm him down a bit, and after a brief word with him, continued to walk in her direction; this time, with less hostility.

He knelt in front of Adai, and she bundled herself up in her blanket even more as his eyes bored little holes in her, and pointed to himself, saying: "Aragorn."

He then pointed to her, awaiting her answer. The Padawan didn't want to have to verbally communicate if it meant doing so in such a primitive manner, so she just sent him a thought.

_My name is Adai Seth, a Jedi-in training under the instruction of my mistress, the Jedi Mala Visjeri._

Aragorn pondered this for a moment, and stole a glance at Boromir before turning back to her. "Jedi?" he asked slowly.

"Jedi."

Adai closed her eyes and sent him snippets of lectures some Jedi Masters have given Padawans. Master Obi-Wan, Master Yoda, Master Windu. She sent him memories of some of her friends back at home, like Doran and Tamubi. She sent him images of student lightsaber duels.

When she was done, Aragorn still didn't seem to believe what he saw. He looked at her skeptically, as if she were not well in the head, but the voices of Merry and Pippin broke the silence as they chattered away at him. Aragorn nodded to shut them up and turned to her again.

He drew a breath, then paused, as if he were thinking of what to say, seeing as they couldn't verbally communicate. Adai shivered again at another chill breeze, and Aragorn called at Merry and Pippin for help. The two humanoids stood next to him on the grass as he asked them a question. "Oh!" she heard Merry say, and it was followed with a verbally complex series of syllables and accompanied by hand gestures and interruptions by Pippin. "Ah," Aragorn said, and turned one again to the Padawan. He pointed to his head and then touched his finger to her forehead, right between the eyes, then grabbed her hands and put them on his temples.

So that's what he wanted her to do. Easy enough.

She opened her mind to him, and she felt him do the same. It was surprising how clear and collected his thoughts were…. It was nothing like Pippin's muddled memories that she read earlier that day.

In fact, all she could get from him was blackness. No thought, feeling, or emotions to read. Then there came a question from the nothingness.

_How did you get here?_

Adai stiffened, and she could tell that Aragorn noticed. _I can't tell you._

_And why not?_

_Who I am should be enough._

_You could be a threat to our journey, though you do not seem to be a pawn of the Enemy._

_I have no idea what you're talking about._ Then she remembered Frodo, sitting on his bed. She felt as if he was collapsing in on himself like an old star, and would soon be nothing but a black hole.

_I doubt your sincerity, girl. You will remain in the custody of the Elves until we are three days ahead._

_I'm telling the truth. I don't mean any of you any harm, and it's not my intention to jeopardize anything! I can't tell you how I got here for your own sake._

_It would be for _your _sake._

Adai bristled at his thought. What journey were hey talking about? What Enemy? She was apart of no such organization of any kind of evil... she was in the Jedi order, for Force sake! They kept tabs on the galaxy... like a sort of galactic police. She was one of the good guys. But she couldn't tell him that... she didn't know what would happen. But then why did she tell Anessen? She hadn't, entirely... she didn't tell him how she got stuck on the planet either. Or about her ship... and R4. If she told them what happened, they might force her to take them up into the mountains, and show them the crash site. The Padawan swallowed.

_I can't._

Aragorn had had enough. He removed her hands from the sides of his head, rose and walked away, talking to the others of the company in a frustrated, and slightly angry tone.

Night was upon the forest and Adai Seth curled up in her blanket and brought her clothes closer to her and she huddled against the base of the fountain. Merry and Pippin looked at her from where they sat in their beds in the tree roots. She suspected that Aragorn didn't want any of them talking to her.

After a few minutes, Adai stood up and gathered her things as she headed for the opposite end of he Pavilion and to another tree. A single lantern was lit inside the tiny cavernous space that the roots made, and she made a comfy little spot on the soft cot that was there. She blew out the light, and, making sure she was alone, proceeded to remove her wet clothes from under the blanket, and lay them out on a root nearby so that they would dry. She curled up into a cold, wet, pathetic ball inside her blanket and under the covers of the bed, especially now that she was naked. No would bother waking her up in the middle of the night, and if she did, she could just wear the blanket.

The Padawan lifted her head once more, gazing to the other side of the Pavilion where the eight others were, comfortable in each other's company, and watched as a last light from the inside was put out. She let her head fall to the pillow and drifted off to a dead sleep after a long while.

TBC

* * *

**Black Opal1:** Oo! Now that I think about it, there _are _several possibilities... you'll just have to wait. :D  



	11. 1010

**sus·pect** _v._ 1. To have doubts about; distrust.

* * *

Adai Seth was groggily awoken by a dull, throbbing pain in her head and a gurgling in her stomach. She lifted her face from the pillow with a groan and looked out over the Pavillion that was enshrouded by a thin blanket of mist. Her right eye blinked of its own accord and she let her head fall back to the pillow, seeing that she was the only one awake in the area. Her stomach snarled again, demanding food. 

"Augh," she pitifully whined to herself, shifting under the weight of the blanket, groping around for her utility belt. Adai didn't feel entirely welcome to the food that was set out for the others across the way, so the only other option would be to have another satisfying meal provided by one of her food capsules. Her fingers plucked one from her belt, and she held it in front of her face. Bronze.

She unearthed another hand from inside the blanket and used the dysfunctional limb to pry open the metal thing, pouring the protein and carbohydrate powder onto her already dry tongue. She sputtered and fought to swallow the stuff.

How could Jedi go for weeks living on the stuff? It was horrid! The Padawan blindly threw the empty capsule as far away as she could away from herself and rolled over in attempts to fall back asleep.

_It's not respectful to the Lady to litter in her wood,_ a thought floated into her consciousness.

Adai started. In her mentally dull state, she had been caught off guard, but after the _plink_ of the same capsule was heard near her ear, she knew who it was.

_Anessen?_ The thought was weak as she sent it out searching for her friend.

As soon as a familiar face looked down at her from the overhang of the tree roots above her bed, she was almost fully alert. She wiped her tired eyes and laughed.

"Sh!" he motioned, glancing around nervously in case anyone heard her laugh. _I am not supposed to be talking to you._

Adai looked at him in question. _Why?_

_My father said that you are human, but you were different from the others of your race. He also says you are very dangerous with your sword of light. He thinks you might be trying to stop the Ringbearer. _ Anessen leapt nimbly down from his perch and crawled into the little cave that her bed was set in. Adai shivered and suddenly drew her blanket very tightly around herself and sat up, realizing how very exposed she was underneath.

_That so… who is this Ringbearer?_

Anessen jumped up and sat on his haunches and pointed in the direction of the sleeping company of eight on the other side of the Pavillion. The energy she felt was very dim, except for one individual, who she assumed was dreaming of something horrific…

_What exactly is his journey? Aragorn mentioned something about it, but I still don't know what it means._

Anessen settled back down. _You do not know? He has taken it upon himself to destroy the Ruling Ring. It was decided in Rivendell who the eight were to accompany him back in October. Lord Elrond sent word about three months ago, I think, that they would be headed this way. They lost Mithrandir in Khazad-Dum. That is why you only see eight here._

Adai gave him a look that told him how little she knew about anything he was talking about. But then a spark of memory came back to her foggy mind… a bit of what she re-lived in Pippin's head. The grief and darkness of Moria.

_I see_, she lied. She still didn't understand it, and why it was so important. After a pause in their thoughts, she decided to reach for her clothing that was soaked the day before. To her utter annoyance and dismay, they were still damp. The climate here was probably very humid. Anessen looked at her and frowned.

_Your clothes are not yet dry?_

Adai sighed and shook her head.

_I'll get you some of my clothes_, the young man thought to her. _We're about the same size._

The Padawan looked up at him and smiled. _Thank you so much._

With that, he climbed out of the earthy recess in the roots of the tree and dashed off into the fading golden mist. After a few moments, she looked around a bit more and started noticing morning peering through the canopy of the trees.

_Can you still hear me from this far?_ The Padawan's thought sought out the boy, wherever he was at the moment.

An image invaded her mind. It was like a color holo… she was seeing through Anessen's eyes. He was running up a broad winding staircase, and she could see his feet as they soundlessly landed on each step. He looked up and she could see houses a little ways above him, and then he looked down to his left. She could see the ground far below; he was about sixty feet off the ground, maybe?

_I have to concentrate to understand you_, he sent after a minute. As it turned out, so did she. Adai grinned to herself as she stared off into space, only seeing and hearing the things that were going on inside her head.

_The more we do it, the easier it'll be._

_Practice makes perfect._

It was probably another three minutes later when he returned to the Pavillion with a ball of clothing under his arm.

_I hope this will suit you, milady… _He threw open a long shirt in front of her as if it were a flag, and she looked at the garment with awe. It was a bright moss-color, and made of a very soft fabric. He laid it out in front of her, and also a pair of black pants. She looked at the clothes as if she had never seen clothing before. _What is wrong? You don't like it? I'll see if there is anyth—_

_No no no_, Adai interrupted. _I've just never been able to wear a thing like this. Ever since I could remember, I had to wear the beige uniform of the Jedi: coarse, and restraining to everything but meticulous combat._

Anessen thought nothing, but just watched her as she sat up in her blanket and focused on the green shirt. After a moment of staring, the shirt began to move all on its own. Anessen gasped as the clothing was lifted into the air by an invisible hand, and Adai behaved as though this unseen limb were attached to her own body, but was weak, as though she had hardly ever used it.

The spell was broken as a series of incoherent thoughts permeated the Padawan's subconscious, and the only idea she could understand was "wizardry", or perhaps "magic".

_Hold on. I need clear thoughts to understand you._

Anessen's stream of consciousness paused for a moment as he looked at her, and Adai saw that there was a spark of something in his eye that disappeared as soon as she noticed it. He took a seat next to her on her bed.

_Does my father have good reason to distrust you? Your powers seem… supernatural. Who taught you this?_

_My mentor, the Jedi Mala Visjeri, who was taught by the great Jedi Master Windu. _

_And did she teach you to communicate through thought? _

_Yes. I've been training since my early childhood._

_What sort of life do you lead, at this Temple?_

_It's very strict, and hard work, but you learn a lot. _

_Learn about what?_

Adai hesitated. _The Force._

TBC


	12. 1011

**frus·tra·tion** _n_. 1. The condition that results when an impulse or an action is thwarted by an external or an internal force.

* * *

Anessen gave her a long, thoughtful, scrutinizing look. _And what, pray tell, is this force that you study?_

The Padawan suddenly felt ashamed that she had ever told him. Self-consciousness more so than fear that she had told him something that could jeopardize either her or them. Why should she be embarrassed to mention it to an outsider, not familiar with the Jedi Order, or one that had not been welcomed into the wide world of their galaxy quite yet? Sure, they lacked technology, but the Force was definitely strong here; strong with Anessen and his kind, and astonishingly strong with Galadriel, even if none were aware of it.

Even if they did not have a name for it.

_The Force is the… singular spirit that courses through everything in the universe. It is the life force that unifies all._

Adai Seth cast her eyes downward and drew the blanket nearer to her skin.

She suddenly read a burst of incoherent understanding, something along the lines of "Aha!" or "Oh!" from the humanoid next to her. _You do mean Illuvatar, then?_

"Illuvatar?" she spoke out loud. The syllables were alien to her and they rolled off the tongue in a manner just short of casual.

_Yes. Illuvatar, Eru, the One, He Who Is. He created the Valar who created the world by the laborious work of their own hands and minds. _

_You must be silly. You really believe in multiple deities that created this world, and this world alone?_

But it was too late. The Padawan could not take back what she had thought to him, and now that single string of thought would be the gateway to many other things that she promised herself to keep hidden from them. Anessen looked taken aback.

_Silly? I am not being silly, Adai Seth. What I tell you of is the truth. Fourteen Valar descended from the Halls of Illuvatar to create this world, Ea, and all that you see._

Actually, this was the moment most crucial. She now had two choices: to either agree with him and end the conversation, letting him triumph in his ignorance, or to continue to argue that this world was most certainly not the only inhabited planet, and his kind not the only intelligence species in the galaxy. She had learned that many societies before being integrated into the galaxy often experienced denial of many things before they are taken as truths. Perhaps this was one such case that was not yet ready to listen. This race of Elves, as they were, would make great Jedi some time in the future.

Adai sighed deeply and rubbed her eyes in distraught. She didn't know what to do, for the most part. She knew what she thought the best answer would be, what the most ethical course of action would be… but on the other hand, was sowing the seeds of controversy the most moral thing to do, even if you are in the right to begin with?

_I've seen far more than you have, Anessen Tell me. What do you see at night when you look up at the sky?_

He gave her a look as though she had asked a moronic question. _The stars, of course._

_What created those stars?_

_Elbereth did so with the dews of Telperion, one of the Two Trees of old._

Oh Force! How she so badly wanted to explain to him how massive clouds of gas and dust collapse to create gigantic, hot, burning spheres, who in turn can acquire planets that are born in much the same way. How she so badly wanted to explain the forces at work within each star, and how their own system revolves around a star that is no different from the countless others in the galaxy. How she so badly wanted to tell him that she had traveled through his night sky, seen his spherical world from thousands of miles away, passed his moon, crashed in the mountains but twenty miles from where they sat, and her droid was still there, waiting for her patiently in the snow. The gnawing compulsion to tell him that everything he took to be true was in fact wrong made her ache in the pit of her stomach, and the only thing she could do to relieve it was close her eyes, let gravity take hold of her, rest her forehead on his shoulder, and think: _Yes. Elbereth did create the stars._

TBC


	13. 1100

**wor·ry **_v. _1. To feel uneasy or concerned about something; be troubled.

* * *

Anessen had to leave shortly after that little conversation, when Aragorn woke up: the first to rise. Adai would have thought that the troubled Boromir would have been wide awake most of the night, but how was she to tell unless she probed his mind? 

The Padawan remained huddled in her alcove among the roots of the gigantic tree, watching silently as Merry and Pippin investigated a platter of food near to them. What she would give for some fresh food, and not that dried and powdered nutrients stuffed into the capsules at her waist, created only to provide energy and not a full stomach. Adai closed her eyes and envisioned one of the green, shiny fruits in the silver bowl. She focused hard on it, and reopened her eyes, reaching out an arm in the direction of the comestible. Slowly it rose in the air, and she had to focus hard in order to guide it shakily towards her. Twice she only barely lost focus and it dropped to the ground, but soon it was in her grasp and she hungrily snatched it from the air.

Later the Padawan snuck out from her bedroll when the Fellowship wasn't looking, and stole off into the trees. She reached out with her mind, trying to sense if there were any presences of sentient beings nearby, and there were none, so she continued until she found the most secluded spot that she could. It was a clearing in the trees, with the forest floor blanketed with a short green growth that was soft under her boots. It was quiet, it was peaceful, and it was devoid of any potential intruder for a nice radius. Adai settled down in a cross-legged posture in the middle of the clearing, closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and began to meditate. A slideshow appeared in her mind's eye.

A stark, sparsely furnished room.

A classroom.

Children. All her same age.

Growing older.

The first lightsaber.

Her first burn.

Stones being lifted into the air.

Holos of famous politicians.

Mala.

Brown robes.

Boots echoing down a corridor.

A control panel.

Fingers nimbly passing over the buttons.

Space.

Stars.

Planets.

Explosions.

Federation vessels.

Explosions.

Planets.

Planets.

Crash.

Adai jerked herself out of the daydream, and swallowed in shame. Her mistress would not have approved of such mental wandering. The Padawan knew she was capable of extreme focus, capable of completely emptying her mind of any thought, any impulse. Why… how come she was suddenly starting to lose everything that she had learned? Everything that, through repetitive, sterile conditioning, had taken her entire life to learn? The Padawan closed her eyes again and made comfy on the ground. After a few minutes of slow, deep, steady breathing, everything fizzled away and her mind was blank.

By the time that Adai came to, it seemed to be late morning, which meant that she must've been meditating for several hours at least. She looked around at her surroundings, and nothing seemed to be different than it was from several hours earlier. She felt incredibly calm and well grounded… yet, as she examined her state more, she seemed to be a bit numb and lofty. It would take another good ten minutes before she was feeling normal again.

Adai looked down and picked at her fingernails, swallowing hard. Her throat tightened up and she fought back sudden tears that threatened to spill. What was wrong with her?

She was determined.

She had a high midicholorian count.

She had been readily accepted into the order.

What if she wasn't doing all the she could? What if she was just a bad Jedi? Force! Three days on this planet and she was already starting to be undone. The 16-year-old Padawan choked down a sob and continued to pick at her nails. What if… what if, she could never pass the Trials? Of course that was many years into the future, and her Mistress had much more for her to learn… but what if she couldn't do it because she just wasn't born to be a good Jedi? No proper follower of the order would have ever done something so brash as what she had done that got her here in the first place. The girl suddenly envied Anakin Skywalker, and Master Obi-Wan, and Adi Gallia, and Master Fisto, and Aayla Secura, and the other Jedi who were so much more disciplined than she was, so much more in tuned with the force. Master Windu and Master Yoda were others too, even though their level of connectedness with the force was one that she could never hope to reach. Adai swallowed down a bubbling anger that rose up from the pit of her stomach and scolded herself.

"The others would never think like this," she whispered, and closed her eyes to calm herself.

Then, just as abruptly as the mood came over her, she felt a solid determination to improve her own skills during her stay here. No proper Jedi would let himself waste away in idleness ever.

Adai Seth inhaled deeply, and exhaled just the same, eyes scanning the area for a stone, or a stick, or… something. She spotted a rock about three hands across about ten feet away from where she sat, and focused on it. Holding her hand out and taking another deep breath, the rock began to loosen from the soil. She unconsciously stood up and focused more on the stone, closing her eyes. She felt the Force flowing through her like never before, and felt powerful. The Jedi taught that power wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but they did teach that it should be kept in check, and to never abuse it in any way. And that's exactly what Adai nobly did as she stood there, lifting the rock from the living earth. She opened her eyes and stared at the thing as it hovered in the air. The knights would indeed be proud. As she looked all around her, she noted other stones in the grass, and reached out with her mind to them, lifting them into the air just as she did with their larger brother. Soon the air about her was filled with pebbles and stones as she held them up with the force. After a moment in this empowering stasis, she maneuvered them so that they all stacked stop each other to create a rickety tower of stones, large and small. She held them there with her own calm will.

But her exhilarating exercise was suddenly interrupted when she felt two beings within the vicinity. She held the rocks until they came closer, yet at the same time, reaching out and trying to determine who the intruders were. She was startled to find that it was Merry and Pippin, and after a moment, heard their hushed voices speaking in tongues she didn't understand.

The Padawan was amazed to find that it was so easy—too easy, even. She raised her hand in his direction and pulled him from the solid ground beneath his feet. He let out a yelp when he realized that he was no longer on the ground, and Adai couldn't help but giggle to herself. _That's what you get for interrupting me_, she thought in their minds, and set Pippin down gently. The Padawan set her most powerful weapon back at her side –her hand- and went to greet the Hobbits.

The two diminutive males looked up at her with astonishment, and she just smiled at them.

_Interrupting what?_ They nearly thought in unison.

_Training._

They both gave her questionable looks, so she turned the other way and raised her hand, lifting a stone into the air with it, and gently lobbed it away. The hobbits gasped and stared at the stone in awe.

Merry looked up at her, still stupefied, and pointed at her, and then at the stone. Adai laughed and nodded. The two spoke to each other excitedly, and she was sure that even if she did know their language, she still wouldn't understand a single thing they said. However, in between their tireless chatting, she felt two other presences. One was only vaguely familiar, and the other was, bizarrely enough, Anessen. Though she felt he was not close at all, it surprised to be able to sense him when not even focusing on it. But that other one… she was determined to figure out who it was.

The hobbits seemed to notice a slight change in her demeanor, so they excused themselves and walked off; she assumed they assumed she wanted to train some more in peace. As soon as they were gone, Adai proceeded to investigate the presence. There was nothing malicious about it, as she felt for it with the Force. The Padawan crept around between the trees, following what her instincts were telling her, drawing her near to some secluded hills and gulches a ways off. He was there. She knew he was. She reached out with invisible arms and gently probed his troubled mind, and what she found there disturbed her.

There was hate, jealousy, anger, a deep, smoldering anger, as well as fear, and a feeling of loneliness. Who was this that was dwelling on such horrible things? She crept closer to the rocks that broke the soft surface of the earth, and stealthily proceeded through the small gully. She knew he was up along the top, and peered up from behind a rock, curious at this man and his strong, sorrowful emotions that she knew could be little less than tearing him apart. She knew that thought the Jedi could be emotional people at times, especially the humans, they were trained from early childhood to avoid acting on them nearly all of the time. This, obviously, was something that she needed to work on.

But as she looked at this man standing some eight feet above her head, she couldn't help but peer into his mind a little more. What she saw there were dark, jumbled images of power, of destruction, of the illusion of justice. She saw a fleeting thought of something gold and shimmering, something even she felt drawn to for the same fleeting moment. Then it was gone.

Adai wanted to settle his mind. She wanted him to be at peace, even if it was for only a while. She thought hard for the most peaceful image she could conjure, and after deciding on the best one, gently placed it into his mind. She opened her eyes and peered up at him, and his mood seemed to change for a little while. She saw him close his eyes and heard him sigh, but for some reason his peaceful trance was broken, and he drew a long, dangerous-looking blade from his side, and held it out defensively, turning around. He knew she was there. Just as he was convinced that he was alone once again, and had loosened the grip on his weapon a bit, Adai reached out and gently tugged the blade from his hand, suspending it in midair in front of him, and over her head. He gasped in surprise, reached out to grab it, but recoiled, thinking better of it. He looked around, and after a moment, he saw the Padawan behind a rock beneath him. With a patient movement of her arm, Adai set the sword on the ground next to his feet and gave a shy smile. She waved to him and was about to go, satisfied that she'd taken his mind off of whatever was deeply troubling him for a moment, but he halted her with an alien syllable before she could take two steps. The man leapt down from the ledge and stood in front of her, scratching his chin idly and with the curiosity of his mind betrayed by the lines of his face.

After studying her for a moment, he began to speak, but caught himself when he remembered, once again, that she couldn't understand him. A second later he grabbed her hands in his surprisingly rough ones and placed them on the sides of his head, and gestured for her to do her thing.

_Think to me._

Boromir nodded. _How do you know to do that with a simple wave of your hand?_

_Years of training and special prerequisites I was born with._

She read a simple feeling of understanding from him.

_And was it you who placed the vision of clouds passing in my mind?_

Adai blushed beneath his aged scrutiny, however still nodded. Padawan were taught early how to hold someone's gaze.

_Though I have never heard of a wizard taking on the guise of a maiden such as yourself, might you by any chance be one?_

Her face scrunched up in question. _No, I am not a wizard._

_Then who are you and where do you come from? Where might be such a place that teaches Men such powers?_

Adai swallowed. _It's an institution very far away from here._

There was the faintest glimmer of something in Boromir's eye that she did not think she liked much. He suddenly removed her hands from his head and stepped back, looking down at her again with arms crossed over his broad chest.

_I see,_ he thought to her.

The Padawan wasn't so sure she liked Boromir quite as much as she had before. There was something marginally upsetting about his character, and from then on she would be sure to not pay him any more visits by herself. Something told her he had the potential to be a very violent man, and he was so physically oriented and alpha, that he had little capacity for passivity. This breed of male was something she was not normally accustomed to dealing with, especially considering she had spent most of her life within the vast halls of the Jedi Temple.

_I should leave,_ she thought, and turned from him. But a large hand found itself on her shoulder and kept her from leaving for a second, but let go. Boromir muttered something, and Adai quickly walked away. Part of her said that this man, no matter what assortment of tranquil thoughts she lent to him, wouldn't find complete peace for a while.

TBC

* * *

I hope this chapter doesn't drive the Boromir fanciers away. But seriously, folks… didja really think a 16 year old was going to get together with him?  
Oh, and another thing: how do you like ethe definitions at the top of each chapter? I thought it would be a little like chapter titles, but better. xD Should I continuee to use them, or just not bother? 

R&R, PLZ! KTHX.


	14. 1101

**A.N.;** I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for reading this story! It's really very hard to try and juggle ethics, science, philosophy, religion, romance, and other personal affairs in a single short piece of fanfiction; not to mention trying to get two completely different works to coalesce without having too many seams showing. Crossovers: a blessing or a curse? Thanks for sticking it out with me guys!

Special thanks goes to **Nelarun** and **DreamWriter16** for their adamancy in reviewing. I demand that they be sated with copious amounts of baked goods! JEDI AND RINGBEARERS ALIKE: TO THE KITCHENS!

Now for the rest of you, on with the show. :D

**Chapter 14.**

**in·er·tia **_n. _1. The tendency of a body to resist acceleration; the tendency of a body at rest to remain at rest or of a body in straight line motion to stay in motion in a straight line unless acted on by an outside force.

* * *

Adai Seth had found her way back to the pavilion, making sure that she didn't directly encounter anyone along the way. It was about noon then, and she was getting irritably hungry again, though no food had been given to her. The Padawan gathered her now dry underclothes, situated herself under her blanket, and began to change out of Anessen's garments. She slipped her boots on, strapped on her belt, and double-checked to make sure her lightsaber was at her side before setting out to do what she had to so. 

Upon a closer inspection, she discovered that the Pavilion was in fact empty, save for two of the Fellowship across the way: the short one with the bantha beard, and the tall, grim one with blond hair. She wondered if they would mind if she helped herself to another modest helping from the platter of food that was replenished for them some time earlier.

She snatched another fruit from the bowl, soft and green, but before she was able to take a single bite, she saw the blonde man look up from his silent conversation with the stout, bearded man, studying her with mildly interested and pitying eyes.

"_Lle anta amin tu, eller?_" he said in a bright, calming voice.

Adai didn't respond for a moment, and so the man stood up from his diminutive friend, and was about to speak again, but she held up her hand.

_I can read minds, you know, _she sent to him. _Just don't think in tongue. Think in… pulses._

"Adai Seth," she then said, pointing to herself.

"Legolas," he replied. _You must have Elvish blood running through your veins if you have such skill to do this._

Adai held up her hand again in humble opposition. _None does, I'm sorry. I don't wish to have to explain more about it… though you may ask your friend Boromir when he returns. What was that you said, though?_

_I asked if you needed help, little one._

Adai looked at the piece of fruit in her hand, and tossed it up a few inches into the air before catching it again. _It doesn't seem so… unless, of course, you mind me taking this?_

Legolas shook his head. _I should like to inquire about your sword of light that I heard about from the guard yesterday, but I think you do not wish to speak of it either?_

Adai inhaled and nodded.

_Perhaps another time then. I have something I need to do._

_Surely._

Legolas bowed then and turned back to his friend, who had watched the whole thing in amazement. She heard him grunt loudly and scoff through the long bristles of his beard before continuing the conversation he was originally having with Legolas.

The Padawan ate as she dashed off into the trees, in what she assumed to be a westerly direction. When she wasn't near anyone once again, she tossed the fruit core off into the bushes and turned to her belt. She searched the pockets and pouches until she came along the comlink again.

She impulsively glanced around before speaking into the thing.

She needed to get off this damned planet, and soon. Masters at the temple were probably looking for her by now. Adai was partially glad that she didn't have a chrono on her; she was scared to see how long she had been gone by galactic standards, although she did suspect, that the difference between here and Coruscant was very little. Her sleeping patterns weren't interrupted at all by the length of night and day here…

But, the young Jedi apprentice had to admit to herself, the situation concerning her current standing within the Order wasn't the only thing that was compelling her to try and leave. There was something happening on this world; something big, and she knew she didn't like it at all. She mused for a moment an age-old battle between the forces of light and darkness, vast armies fighting over a single thing, a single idea, and all of these millennia-old tensions were just now coming to a head. She felt as though this world were just a microcosm mirroring the struggles that were gripping the entire populated galaxy far beyond the upper layers of the atmosphere here. Adai giggled inwardly and dismissed the musing as nothing more than just that: a musing.

But seriously? What was all this business about a Ring of Power and a Dark Lord, and Frodo Baggins and the Fellowship? She was suddenly gripped by a slight series of chills at the recollection of Boromir's thoughts earlier. She suddenly found herself wondering what part he had to play in all of it. However, there was one thing she felt for sure, and that was that he would not find peace with himself until he joined and became one with the Force.

_Luckily for him_, she found herself thinking, _he does not have to wait much longer._

Adai paused at her own thoughts, and nervously brushed them to the back of her mind. She focused on the task at hand.

"R4," she said into the thing. "R4, can you read me."

The Padawan was greeted by static. She cursed under her breath and continued striding through the trees. Adai knew she would come upon the watch sooner or later, and so she busied herself by devising a way to sneak past their vigil.

Adai had been walking for about fifteen minutes or so before she felt any sentient presences in the vicinity. Upon closer inspection, she found that it was Anessen. She felt him trying to be stealthy, trying to sneak up on her.

Unfortunately for him, followers of the Force were extremely difficult to sneak up on.

The Padawan continued walking at a now leisurely pace, convinced that she'd divert his attention elsewhere in the forest somehow so that he could leave her be to her plan. There was no way in the deepest bowels of a Federation vessel that she was going to lead him anywhere near the crash site.

He was sneaking closer, now, and she knew she wouldn't be able to see him with her eyes had she looked. Adai was waiting for him to attack. The hairs on the back of her neck rose in anticipation.

And suddenly, he leapt out, armed with a quarterstaff. In a fraction of a second she whipped out her saber, ignited it, and cut the sturdy stick in half, careful to avoid getting too near any of his limbs or appendages. Anessen let out a noise when he realized that his weapon had been disposed of.

The young man stood next to Adai, looking with amazement at the spot where the two halves of staff should've been one. Each half was blackened and hot. He said something under his breath that Adai couldn't hear, but she understood the meaning of it from his thoughts.

_You shouldn't have followed me._

_You're a stranger to this land. I wanted to make sure follow not hurt watch guard you weren't wandering off…_

Adai cocked her head when his thoughts became jumbled. She knew he was lying, though she also knew he meant no harm to her.

_Did your father tell you do this?_

She received an incomprehensible thought in reply.

_I know he did. Don't worry. I understand._

_He doesn't trust you at all._

_I know._

_He knows you're dangerous, and he thinks you're after the Ring. The Lady Galadriel told him to stay away from you, but he refuses to let you leave the wood until after the Fellowship has left._

Adai saw the nervousness in his eyes.

_I can't let you leave, Adai Seth. I know you wish to get back to your Temple and your Jedi, but if you try to leave… I don't want my father to hurt you. _He cast his eyes downward. _The Eldar are normally much kinder to their guests, but it cannot be so in such dark times. You must understand._

_I do, Anessen. I do. But now you must trust me. You have to let me leave. I'm afraid that time may be running out for me to get back home, and there's only one way that I can make it a reality, and that's by going back to…_

_Back to where?_

_I cannot tell you._

Adai noticed that her lightsaber was still ignited, so she powered it down and hung it at her side once again. The Padawan jumped when the young man took her hand in his and led her away from the edge of the forest, back to the city in the trees.

She looked back over her shoulders at the white, towering mountains miles behind them, and suddenly had an insatiable longing for the feel of cold, battle-worn metal under her fingertips.

TBC


	15. 1110

**A.N.;** /target Nelarun /craft Orange and Sesame Seed Muffin

**sac·ri·lege **_n. _1. The act of depriving something of its sacred character

* * *

Four more days passed after Adai's first attempt to get back to her ship. She had grown homesick and the slightest bit despondent, and practiced little with the Force. She did, however, meditate more often. 

She found herself in Anessen's company more than before as well, but they didn't exchange thoughts much at all. He seemed very curious about her life and where she was from and what she did there, but the Padawan refused to reveal to him much of anything, and as a matter of fact, had completely given up on trying to tell him the scientific ways of the galaxy because she saw how dead-set on his faith was in the mythos of this planet. Perhaps, it wasn't about seeking truth. Perhaps it was something extraordinary to believe in, to keep one going through the day. And for those with too few midichlorians to know of oneness with the Force, faith was a powerful driving essence that without would result in some of the things that the Code forbade.

But then again, there were also Sith.w

Their lives did not depend on faith. They were also trained in the Force. And they also did not follow the Code.

_Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to victory._

So then, perhaps it was not just the training, and the Jedi code, and even skill with the Force that made one a tranquil, serene, and occasionally celibate defender of the Light.

Perhaps the defining variable in the equation was…

…the individual?

"Adai?"

The girl was shaken from her thoughts as her attention was suddenly focused on the young humanoid male walking at her side.

"_Hiraetha_," she said, sighing. 'Sorry' was one word of her slowly growing Sindarin vocabulary that Anessen was teaching her.

_What troubles you, Adai? I see that your mind has been constantly wandering over the past few days._

_It's nothing._

_Surely it is something?_

_It is, but it's no concern of yours._

Adai felt that her remark had hurt him in some way, and she suddenly felt guilty for having to keep so much from him.

"_Amin rangwa_," he said sadly.

The Padawan sighed. "_Amin_…" she began, then realized that she didn't know the words to say how she felt. _I miss home. I miss the bustle of Coruscant, the training, my friends, my Mistress. I feel alone here. I feel alien here._

_You feel: _"Milyeska."

"Milyeska?" she asked.

Anessen nodded. _I have never been away from this place, though I am leaving soon with my Father. We will sail to the Undying Lands in the West._

Adai looked at him and wondered what he meant by 'undying lands'. A place that doesn't tarnish, or fall ruin, or get dirty, like the seedy little planets in the Outer Rim?

_Nothing lasts forever, Anessen. Everything has a beginning, and everything has an end._

_The Undying Lands on the shores thither had a beginning, yes, and it is prophesized that it will also have an end: The Great End, where Morgoth, the first and greatest of all evils, will break free from his prison in the Void beyond the circles of the world, and there will be a great battle in which He will be destroyed forever. Those who perished in the War of Wrath, or swallowed up by the sea in that doomed Numenorian fleet long ago… all will fight against him. Even the Valar. _

Adai's mind was filled with extraordinary images of vast battlefields clouded with smoke and ash, or of a gigantic armada of sea-faring ships reaching some holy shore, then being sucked down into a chasm in the ocean.

_When I get to Valinor, I know I will miss Middle-earth just as you miss your home. Except for me, there will be no return. _

_Are you saying that you believe that I'll get to go home?_

_I think so._

_I don't know about that,_ Adai thought, and sighed audibly. _All I can see in my future is that I'll just barely miss something huge. Then my vision clouds after that._

_Have faith, Adai. Things will be well for you._ The elf put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently.

She looked up ahead and saw a man slowly walking down the path, his hands behind him. He looked up through the trees in a dreamy manner, as if his thoughts were far away. Adai reached out to him and saw a woman with dark hair, smiling. There was also a metal sword, and… a ring?

She withdrew from his mind when he looked at her with an old, sober gaze. He probably felt his thoughts being invaded. What was his name again? Oh, right: Aragorn.

She met his gaze and the two locked stares and they idly walked past each other, neither one wanting to be the first to break away. But when they passed, Adai looked down at the ground, knowing that he didn't trust her either. She saw it in his mind.

_That was Aragorn, the son of Arathorn. He is to be the king of a country that has been missing its royal line for many centuries. He—_

_Is doubtful of himself and doesn't want to be king._ Adai nodded._ I know. I read him._

The two came to a wide fountain nestled in the roots of one of the huge trees they stopped there and both sat on the stone-hewn edge. Adai sat cross-legged with her chin resting in her hand. She gazed into the water.

_Would there be anything that I could do to aid you on your journey home?_

Adai did not look up from the water. _If you were a mechanic, then maybe,_ she thought to herself._ But even if I were to get home… I'll probably get expelled from the order._

"_N'uma_," she said.

_Are you sure there is nothing that I can be of service for?_

"_Uma_."

A long silence passed between them. Adai felt that there was some sort of conflict going on inside the young man's head.

_I should very much like to help you, Adai. It saddens me to see you so distressed. I would be happy to see that you returned home… even if I would never see you again._

The Padawan jerked her head up. Was it what she thought it was? The girl grew red in the face but quickly hid any sort of emotional reaction that would have surfaced had she not been trained to remain in calm control of everything that she did.

She knew it would only further hurt him, but… she couldn't possibly.

_I would need help in two very different ways, Anessen, and unfortunately, you are not in any position to be of help in either one._

Adai felt as though she had driven a knife into his gut.

_Then since it seems that I can do nothing, I hope that my company does something for you._ He turned his gaze away from her and stared into the water.

_It does._

It was another long silence. Adai knew that Anessen was stewing as they stared into the water, and there was an anger rising in him. Any minute, now. Any minute.

He abruptly turned to her, and grabbed her forearms roughly in his hands. His hold on her was surprisingly strong. Her eyes steadily went from his hands to his smoldering face.

_All I wanted was to help you, Adai! I wanted to know you more. I'm kind to you, I spend much of my time with you, and all I ask for in return is to learn more of you. Curious how you only harden and grow cold when I try to get close to you. Why is this, Adai? Why do you refuse to let me in?_

Anessen bored into her with his blue eyes, demanding an answer. She realized at this point he didn't care if the answer was something he didn't want to hear. She figured she hurt him enough in the past few days enough.

_It's the Code._

_What Code. You never spoke to me of any Code._

Adai wrenched her arms free of his tightening grasp, and stood up from the fountain, throwing her arms up.

_There is no emotion, there is peace; there is no ignorance, there is knowledge; there is no passion, there is serenity; there is no death, there is the Force._

Anessen grew quiet, and she knew his anger had subsided a little.

_It is the creed that governs the life of every Jedi and every aspiring Jedi like myself in the Order. I have abided by those laws for almost seventeen years of my life with little effort, Anessen. To live by them is second nature for me. Please don't try to sway me from my goal of becoming a master someday. I would like a Padawan of my own in the future, you know. And if anything happens here that I would regret, then that guilt would ruin me, and I would leave the Order because I know I would not become a Jedi Master with guilt hanging over my head for the rest of my life. I could not go on with the knowledge that I had broken the Code._

Anessen was quiet, his anger nearly gone now. She felt from him the same aura that she had gotten to know for the past five days.

_So the Jedi are forbidden to… love._

_Yes. We are also forbidden to form any close relationships with anyone as well. The strongest bond a Jedi will ever feel is the relationship between a Master and his or her Padawan. But when time comes for either of them to leave, a true Jedi will not despair. _

Anessen stood up too, looking at her with a new fire kindled in his eyes. _You did not tell me that the Jedi were cold and devoid of all emotion. That is no way to live, Adai. If you cannot love, you are already halfway dead._

Adai, for the first time since she could remember, could not for the life of her, hold his gaze any longer. After a moment, she felt a hand under her chin, and then, there was warm breath on her cheek. But it was over as quickly as it had begun, and Adai found herself shaking, her mind reeling.

Anessen had just kissed her on the lips.

The Padawan touched her fingertips to her bottom lip, and felt where his mouth had so passionately, angrily, frustratingly touched her. It was a quite a mix of chemicals that flooded her brain just then. The feeling was so alien, and frankly, she didn't know what to think, save for one thing:

She had broken the Code.

Adai stepped away from Anessen, her face set in a calm expression, and she looked at him. Looked at him truly for the first time. She noticed his dark, mildly arched eyebrows, his stormy blue eyes, the way the sun reflected off of a fiery red hair in the sea of dark, dark brown. She noticed his strong jawline, and his strong, sinewy form. She noticed his pointed ears.

_I had to do that. And I will not apologize for it, either._

_Anessen, how old are you?_

_I've seen twenty-eight winters in my life. Why?_

Adai staggered backward again, at the thought that this… this young man that she had taken to cavorting with was no young man at all! In fact, he was nearly twice her age!

All of the variables were taking a toll on her mind. She couldn't handle this situation right now. She needed to calm down; she needed to meditate. And most of all, she needed to get away from Anessen.

The Padawan turned away from him and jogged in the opposite direction.

"_Adai! Feith!_" he called after her.

Adai knew he was running after her. She nimbly ran through the trees, through shrubs, parting them with the Force so she could slip through, then entwining them so that he could not get through. He was slowing as he struggled to keep up, though still called after her.

She knew she had just taken that knife in his gut and twisted it around.

But he deserved it for what he made her do. He made her break the Code. The Code. The Code that every Jedi has to follow.

"**_ADAI!_**" he shouted from far behind. Her name was followed by more words that she couldn't understand. It only took him a moment before he she felt him in her mind, and she threw her shields up, and kept jogging.

After what seemed like an eternity, she stopped running near a gulch. The shadows on the ground were long, and as she looked up to the tall, snowy mountains, she saw that the last rays of the sun were shining over the peaks.

Her breathing came labored, but she climbed the slope to the top of the gully, and sat down. The only way she was going to sort through this was by avoiding it altogether. It was about time she consulted her midichlorians again.

She had to get off this planet for sure now. That's it. Adai was going to go back to her crash site tomorrow, and no one –not even Anessen this time- would be able to stop her.

TBC

**

* * *

A.N.;** I don't know if I'm spoiling anything, but I'm still going to /tell you anyways. The next chapter is going to be the last chapter. I still think it's great that it can be the second to last chapter, and you still don't know how it's going to end. Muahahah!


	16. 1111

**A.N.; **Alright, I apologize folks for scaring you last chapter. I guess the end of this story is going to be longer than I expected, so I divided it up. NEXT chapter will be the last. (Oh god. My arms and hands hurt from typing and gaming so much in this week. DAMN YOU, WORLD OF WARCRAFT!)

Anyways. /love Nelarun/thank j.f.! And DreamWriter, terribly sorry for having to leave you with another cliffhanger.

-:-

**Chapter 16 **

**dis·may **_v._ 1. To destroy the courage or resolution of by exciting dread or apprehension.

* * *

"_Adai Seth!_" 

The Padawan was jolted awake from her false peace by a voice from about fifty yards away. She slowly opened her eyes, her mind still drowsy from the meditation, but she soon snapped back to reality.

_Leave me be, Anessen! _She shouted at him with her mind. The man –no longer was he young to her anymore- halted in the gully below her, obviously out of breath.

_I don't understand! _He thought, throwing his arms up in despair and defeat. _I have done nothing to cause you harm! I have only showed you kindness, and in turn you run from me. Code or no Code, any good woman would not have twisted out the heart of the one that cares for her._

Adai flinched. She stood up and looked down at him. _Please, _she thought. _Let me alone. I need to rest. I need to think about all of this alone._

_No, _he thought back sternly, and leapt up to the ledge of earth that she stood on. He advanced. _I would prefer to think it through with you. _

_Don't you think you're being a little overbearing?_ She thought, and took a step back as he took one forward.

Anessen stopped and raised his eyebrows. _Overbearing? Not I! It seems as though passivity does not work for you, so you have forced me to resort to a more aggressive manner if I want information out of you. Trust me, Adai Seth, what I would give so that I did not have to behave like this! But how else would I understand you?_

The Padawan stood her ground, and dropped her gaze. Jedi did not play evasive games like this. Jedi were direct. _I already told you, Anessen. I cannot break the Code. _She looked directly at him. _And not an hour ago did you force upon me to halfway break a law!_

_It was a kiss! I kissed you, you did not kiss me. Are your laws so fickle that you cannot even be looked at by another without violating your creed?_

Perhaps Anessen was right. Was she overreacting? Have Jedi ever been expelled from the Order simply for being kissed by someone else? She did not think so. But perhaps that wasn't the real reason why she found the entire situation to be unsavory. Perhaps that kiss was not completely one-sided…

It was nearly dark out, and Anessen's form in front of her was but a light shape amid the deep dusk that penetrated the forest. As she glanced around, something seemed amiss.

Then suddenly it hit her.

It hit her like a hideous, painful wave. Adai staggered forward and put her hand on her chest. She dropped to the ground, groaning. Thousands of images flooded her mind at such a pace that she couldn't comprehend any of them. She heard cries, and she heard laser fire.

"Adai!" Anessen cried out, and dropped to the ground next to her trembling, shuddering form in the dirt. He picked her up and set her in his lap. He was speaking at a million miles an hour, then remembered to think to her._ Adai! Are you alright? What happened you pain are alright fell worried care aid return thing I can do?_

Adai just shivered in his embrace, quite unsure of what invisible force had knocked the wind from her lungs, and made her blood run cold. She suddenly felt depressed, hopeless, and disgusted. And invisible force knocked… invisible… force… the Force.

The Force!

Oh dear Gods, the Force!

What was happening?

She slowed the images in her mind and concentrated on them. The cries of pain and death were as loud and pronounced as they were moments earlier, but she could see the images.

She saw clones and Troopers.

She saw hooded forms.

She saw lights flashing, sabers igniting.

She saw the robed forms falling to the ground.

The clones remained.

She vaguely felt someone holding her, but she couldn't hear their words in her mind. The horrific sounds were still too real.

Adai just shivered with her eyes wide open and unblinking.

"A disturbance…" she murmured.

"_Mani?_" The elf said.

"In the Force…"

Adai sniffed and recovered from her bout. She clung to wrinkles of fabric, and arms encircled her. Bringing her close. Comforting. Jedi had a habit of using physical contact to comfort.

_Adai, what happened just now?_

The girl swallowed. _I don't know. Something terrible has happened._

The elf just held her near.

_I will look after you._

Adai closed her eyes, almost enjoying the sensation of being held. But she abruptly sat up and removed herself from Anessen's embrace.

_What is the matter?_

_I have to go. _

_What?_ Anessen stood up.

_I have to leave. Tonight. I have to get back to my ship and see if R4 can maintenance it._

_Adai, I don't understand._

_You have to let me go._

_I cannot! You are not well. You need to sleep. I admit that I have only added to your sorrow, but please! You should not leave now. You must take a rest. _The elf reached out to grab her hand, but she pulled away.

_No, Anessen. I have to leave. _

She couldn't see his eyes, but she knew they were pleading her not to leave him. What if she… him… together… **No**. Adai shook her head. She had to go alone. She began to talk westward.

_What of your things?_

_I have nothing here but the clothes on my back and the equipment in my belt._

Anessen was silent as she stalked off. The Padawan was almost surprised at how little he protested her leaving suddenly. Her heart was still racing from the great disturbance, and her mind was trembling as she walked off into the night. She looked back and saw Anessen standing there before breaking into a jog.

_Wait!_

Adai kept at her pace, but the Elf easily caught up to her in a few seconds.

_Please! You can't leave._

_Why. Because I'm insane and I can't defend myself?_

_Please stay for me._

Adai swallowed and pressed on, driving the knife in a little deeper. Her jog sped up into a sprint. She had to get away from him. She had to escape him before she would be caught up in his emotional mess, and then there she would never be able to look at the Code the same way again.

And so it was that he was chasing after her again. Her agility and speed was quite a match for the elf, as she dodged trees and nimbly leapt over boulders, covering ground very quickly. Soon, she came to the edge of _Caras Galadhon_, and paused for only a moment before running out into the wide open that would bring her to the adjacent forest's edge.

"Adai!"

She ignored him, pushing the knife in a little deeper. Adai refused to look over her shoulder, though she knew he was only a few yards behind. She continued to run for a few minutes, nearly reaching the forest when she barely anticipated Anessen's next move, and paid for it when she was knocked to the ground by a solid body. Had he tackled her?

_I will NOT let you go. If you pass into these woods, my father will find you and have you imprisoned!_

_Get off me!_

_He might hurt you Adai. I would hate to think what he would do to you! He would believe you are trying to escape Lorien and wait for the Fellowship to continue when they are removed from the safety of this forest!_

_GET OFF ME!_

Anessen let out a cry when she lifted him from her and hoisted him off to the side. The girl was breathing heavily and lay down on the grass to catch her breath.

_What do I have to do to make you let me go?_

_My father would have you chained like a dog if he found you out here. I don't want to let you go, Adai, but you know that already. The only way that you will make it safely back to the mountains is if you killed my father and all of his men._

_If it means getting home, then I'm afraid I might have to do that._

Anessen jumped up. _**What?** You would not dare think such a thing! _

_I would._

_I do not want to have to incapacitate you, Adai. Please do not make me resort to that!_

_And I didn't want to have to resort to this. But if it means me getting back to the ship…_

The girl closed her eyes and inhaled, feeling the Force flow through her. She shot out her hand at Anessen and he flew back, hitting the ground ten feet away from where he stood.

Adai bolted into the cover of the trees.

She was getting closer now. The mountains were still only shadowy forms against the starry sky, against _Varda's_ stars. She would reach it by morning if she could run all night.

What was she doing? How did things come to this? Anessen was chasing after her because he didn't want her to leave him, and he didn't want his father to harm her… but why was she resisting so adamantly? So violently? The disturbance she felt earlier… she felt even more alone now than she did before it. She felt needed. She felt sought out. She was still feeling the aftermath of it too.

She needed to fix her ship.

She needed to get off this planet.

She needed to get back to Coruscant and the Temple and find out what was going on.

Find out why she felt what she did, and what it meant.

She felt desperate.

Adai had probably run a quarter of a mile or so into the forest before she felt presences. Sentient presences.

Anessen's father and his Watch.

The Padawan slowed to a brisk walk, letting her body rest. It was a while before she felt that she was drawing nearer to them. Again, they were in the trees. Watching. Listening. This time they wouldn't get her, though.

She snuck through the forest floor, making an extra effort of focusing on the forest guards. About a mile in or so, she knew they were very close. She stopped and heard their hushed voices once again. But as she concentrated more, she felt something else too…

Shit.

It was Anessen.

It was difficult to navigate the forest floor in the near pitch darkness, and she felt compelled to ignite her saber to light the way. But she couldn't. She would be seen. Adai kept going through the forest. It may have been another five minutes of walking or so before she really felt them near. They were in the trees almost directly above her.

She crept silently through the grass and fallen leaves. Adai looked up through the trees and saw the white orb of a full moon mildly lighting the sky and black foliage above. There were small chrips here and there that filled the silent air, and some unknown bird called out in the distance. The Padawan could see the flats high above. She saw their angular shapes in the trees. Did they know she was there? No.

Not yet at least.

Adai licked her lips and looked to the mountains, knowing that the little Jedi starfighter and astrodroid were still there in the snow, waiting for her.

The Padawan kept going. She was beneath them now, nearly out from under their noses. If she had been trained to manipulate the weak-minded yet, then it would make this task much easier.

Oh Force, so close…

And then it happened.

It was a single little crunch of leaves under her boot.

The Padawan froze, and felt eyes on her. They heard her as if it were a gunshot. For a few terrifying moments, the only noise she could hear was the beating of her heart. Did they hear it too?

The voices were getting louder.

Adai bolted.

She sprinted as fast as she could towards the mountains as they fired their sharp, metal-tipped sticks at her. She ran in a zig-zag fashion to increase her chances of avoiding getting hit, but when she heart a shout in a familiar voice she knew it was all over.

"**_Lle!_**" was all she understood from the Elf that stormed over to her. Adai saw that there were four others behind him, each aiming their weapons at her. He was speaking to her, but she didn't understand. She read him like an open book, though. He was proud that he had found her out here, and he was glad that now he would have a reason to imprison her. He knew she was following the Fellowship, that she planned on killing them once they left Lorien, and that she planned to return the Ring to Sauron.

This man was crazy! She wanted no such thing!

The five of them were advancing on her, and Anessen's father pulled out his weapon, pointing it at her throat as he stood, a tall menacing silhouette, in front of Adai.

"_Atar!_" came from behind the group. Adai's aggressor spun around angrily, and she took the opportunity to look over his shoulder to peer into the dark forest. She saw a shape running towards them.

"Anessen?" she murmured.

Anessen's father looked her direction and held his sword dangerously close to her throat. He turned back towards his son.

"_Lle vara he?_" he demanded of his son when Anessen halted in front of him and was catching his breath.

"_Naa_," the son said. Then, between breaths: "_Uuma lle crona he! Re merna nan' a' waan imya!"_

Was Anessen defending her? After all that she had just done to him?

"_Lle merna ost sina loki? Sina… tuar en' Tel'Goth?" _The sword moved and Adai had to tilt her head a little upwards and backwards to avoid being cut.

"_Tuar en' Tel'Goth!_" Anessen shouted suddenly. "_He naa n'uma di'thang a' Tel'Korma en' val!"_

Adai took her single opportunity to escape. She ignited her saber and knocked her attacker's sword from his hand, flinging it several yards away. The other watchmen gasped and fired their weapons at her, but she back flipped into the air and evaded them all, then swung her saber and cut their bows in half, rendering them useless. Cries and shouts of surprise and boiling anger rose from the small group, and Adai broke into a sprint as they brandished long knives and ran after her.

_What are you doing!_ Anessen's voice sounded loudly in her head. _He will kill you now!_

_Tell them to leave me alone and I won't harm them further!_

_I tried! He refuses to heed my word!_

The young Padawan didn't fight tem further but ran with her saber still in her hand, looking for somewhere to hide, or to get her out of this mess. She decided to leap up into a tree, one that she thought would be difficult for them to climb under the circumstances, and ascended until she came to the canopy of the tree.

Two watchmen followed her, but she beat them down with her saber, and even successfully burned one on the back of the hand. They eventually retreated.

"_Lemba lye, Anessen. Ta nuva sana ann tenna' ten' he a' tundu._" The elf chuckled darkly.

_He's telling me to leave, because it will take a long time for you to come down._

Adai shivered. She didn't much like being cornered.

_I don't know what to do to help you._

_Then take your father's advice and go. I'll take care of this. I need to get back home. They need me there._

_I will not leave you here with my father!_

_GO, ANESSEN._

She saw him down at the base of the tree, looking up at her. He was just a pale shape among the blackness.

_I will never see you again, will I._

_I don't think so. I'll make sure your father doesn't kill me. I don't want you to hate him anymore than you do already, if at all._

_Adai, I love you._

_I know._

Anessen stepped back from the tree and looked one last time at her before running off in the direction of the tree-city once again. Adai felt a pang of guilt at having to do this. But it was necessary.

TBC


	17. 10000

**rev·e·la·tion **_n._ 1. Something revealed, especially a dramatic disclosure of something not previously known or realized.

* * *

Adai continued to change positions in the tree, maneuvering around branches, calculating the force she would have to propel herself in order to leap to an adjacent tree. She was obviously nervous. The Padawan glanced down little, but when she did, she saw the five elves far beneath her on the ground idly walking around the tree trunk, their knives flickering like silver flames in the moonlight. 

From what Anessen said, she had a feeling that they were prepared to wait for a very long time for her.

The girl had to come down sometime. A humanoid can last 3 weeks without food, and 3 days without water. She didn't want to have to go 3 days without water. One day was enough. She knew what it was like. It was mandatory for every Padawan to go a day without any thirst-quenching liquid, as a part of their endurance training. What's more is that she only had food capsules. Adai laughed to herself darkly when she noticed that she had eight days worth of capsules.

"_Lle n'hama de eller ten'oio!_" Anessen's father called up to her.

_He's taunting you_, she told herself. _Don't listen to him. He's trying to coax you down. If you go down there, you might have to kill him. You don't want to kill him. Not even in self-defense. He doesn't look down on you, or hate you, or want to spite you. He's afraid of you because you're different from him. _

At least she hoped it was true. She didn't dare read his mind, for fear of what she would see there. She felt some sense of deep loss and longing from him, but other than that, he was cold. For a moment, she wondered at how such a kind, benevolent soul could have been fathered by such a humanoid.

Who was Anessen's mother, and where was she? She had to be the contributor of her son's compassionate and passive gene. She sensed that there was a long story behind it, and that it was a sad one. But she also sensed that she was not in fact dead. For some reason, Adai found herself happy that it was so.

But as the Padawan was thinking this, another tremor in the Force came to her. It was far less painful and intense as the last, and it was more like the feeling of being hit by a thick cloud of steam more so than being tackled by a boulder. What was it this time?

Adai wiped her face with her hand in a frustrated manner.

What the Force was going on out there! She turned angrily toward the stars as if to demand an answer from the hundreds of inhabited systems she knew existed there. The Padawan held her gaze on the sky however, when she found she couldn't look away. Her slate eyes passed over the thousands of twinkling stars that littered the deep, velvet blue of the sky. There were battles going on up there somewhere, right? Her heart leapt out of her chest at the thought that Coruscant's star was somewhere out in the field somewhere, and odds were, she had probably looked straight at it unknowingly, even if it were for only a nanosecond. Adai sighed, and turned from space.

She settled herself on a thick branch high up, with her back to the trunk. She pulled her knees up under her chin and crossed her arms, putting her face down on her arms to try and fall asleep. Would they know if she was asleep? She supposed not.

-:-

Adai Seth sensed it before she heard it. She was startled awake and felt compelled to look east through the boughs of trees. The stars were just beginning to fade as dawn kissed he horizon, but something caught her eye amid the white specks in the sky. She noted that one of them was moving, though only slightly. To and fro it moved, but the small light barely deviated from it's path. After a minute of curious staring, Adai was startled to find that it was growing larger.

Could it… no. It couldn't.

Could it?

It wasn't possible. It was in no way shape or form possible at all.

She glanced down when the light faded and revealed a vague shape that was larger than it was before. The Padawan looked down to see if the elves noticed it too. The instant that she met eyes with one, she abruptly turned around and climbed farther up as quickly as she could, as high as she could.

The branches up there were much smaller and flimsier, but she willed them to hold her weight, until she was able to poke her head out of the top of the leaves. When she saw the shape take on a more familiar form, she held down a squeal of joy, and instead smiled broadly; the first smile that showed in three days.

They were looking for her, she knew it.

_Over here_, she called out with her mind. _I'm over here! Help me!_

Adai reached down to her belt and took her lightsaber from its clip, ignited it, and waved it around frantically above her head. It was this move that caught the attention of the elves below. There was a shout directed at her and then there was angry talking. But she didn't care.

Adai was being rescued.

The ship was plainly visible in the sky now, and she could hear it. Oh yes, she could hear it. The familiar sound of engines propelling a metallic craft through the air made her giddy with intoxication.

Ah yes. It was about time that the elves were aware of it. They were talking frantically, incessantly to each other, and in a moment they were gone from the base of the tree.

The ship was ridiculously close now, and she could sense the pilot had seen her unmistakable beacon. They flew right past her, so near that she was almost blown from her perch in the tree, and made a wide turn before landing some three hundred yards away, disappearing beneath the line of trees. Adai powered her saber down and leapt down from the top of the tree, doing a summersault to break her fall before jumping up again and running in the direction of the landing.

Adai dashed through the trees and found herself in a small clearing. She stopped at the edge of the clearing, her eyes searching for the Republic insignia somewhere on the ship. But there it was, on the side; the paint was chipped and some parts covered with the black streaks of blaster fire, but it was there nonetheless.

The Padawan caught her breath when she felt an intense aura inside the ship, and then the hatch opened. She could barely see anything in the dim light but a bright green saber extended out of the darkness, and a figure exited the ship.

"Little one! Come with me," came a masculine voice from next to the small vessel. Adai could've sworn she recognized it, but..

_You should know me, Adai Seth. I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi._

Adai gasped. Him? Of all the Jedi to find her here, it was him? The famous Master Kenobi?

"Yes, it is me. Now you must hurry, come on!" he called to her. She saw him beckon her to the ship. Why did they have to hurry?

Suddenly, someone had her in their strong grasp as they twisted her right arm painfully around her back and held a knife to her throat.

The Jedi Master crossed the clearing faster than she could comprehend and with one swing of his saber, Adai's aggressor released her with a sharp cry of pain. Obi-Wan grabbed her wrist and hauled her away from the scene. It only took her one glance over her shoulder to see what the Jedi did: the form of Anessen's father was on his knees and hunched over, clutching what remained of his right hand.

Master Kenobi roughly ushered her into the ship, and quickly closed the hatch, and took off again. There was a slience for a moment.

"How did you know I was here?"

"The astro droid on your ship managed to get out a faint distress signal. We knew you were missing shortly after the battle was over, but… due to complications, no one was able to search for you until now. I was able to locate the hyperdrive you left in the planet's orbit, and I also noticed that the SOS was coming from these mountains here. I knew you weren't far. Where there's a ball, there's a boy, or so to speak."

Adai nodded, and looked around the small ship. There were two pilot's seats and a small sitting area behind the cockpit. She turned her attention to the pilot of the ship. Why was he alone? She felt something from him… it was vague, and Adai knew he had his shields up.

The Padawan cleared her throat. "Master Kenobi?"

The man sighed. "Yes, little one?"

"Will I have to leave the Order for what I did?"

She felt a small tremor emanate from him.

"No. No you won't." He pushed a few buttons and rose from the pilot's seat, to kneel in front of her on the floor. He put his large, worn hand over hers, avoiding direct eye contact for a second before locking his eyes onto hers. "Because the Order has been destroyed."

Adai's stomach reeled. Her mind was thinking at the rate of hyperspeed, and she couldn't form any coherent thoughts. She suddenly fell forward right into Master Kenobi, tears skewing her vision. He ran his hand through her hair and shushed her gently.

"What will I do now, Master Kenobi? Where will I go? What about my training?" she said between quick, hyperventilating breaths.

The Jedi Master embraced the young Padawan, holding her close. She suddenly missed Anessen. She felt his breath in her hair, but she was not comforted at all.

_Calm your mind, little one._

_How…_

_You felt it. That it what you felt. Chancellor Palpatine was revealed as the Sith Lord we were looking for… and ordered clones to collectively murder all of the knights. _

Adai looked up at him. "What about the other Padawans? The Younglings?"

Master Kenobi looked down. "Anakin slayed them."

Ada gasped. "Your own Padawan?"

Kenobi sighed and rested his face in her hair. "Yes. My own Padawan."

The girl sniffed. "Where are we going now?"

Obi-Wan let her go and stood in front of her. "Tatooine."

"Why Tatooine?"

"Whatever remaining Jedi after the Purge are now considered fugitives. Criminals. What remaining shreds that are left of the Republic want us dead, Adai Seth. We have to go into hiding. Even Mast Yoda has done so too."

"Master Yoda…"

Master Kenobi nodded.

"Why Tatooine, though? Aren't there other neutral planets that we could hide on?"

"We are going to Tatooine, little one, because I have very important cargo to deliver there."

Adai looked at him questioningly, huddled within herself, eyes still red from the tears. Master Obi-Wan Kenobi took her hand and led her to a container of sorts in the back of the passenger area. She walked up to it and reverently peered over the edge to gaze at this cargo.

It was a sleeping newborn.

"Who is he?" Adai whispered, though did not take her eyes off the child.

"His name is Luke Skywalker."

-:-

THE END.

-:-

**A.N.; **Hallo everyone! Ah, yes... all things must come to an end sometime or another. Just wanted to thank all the reviewers for their support. Yay!

Funny.. I just realized that I pretty much set myself up for a sequel...


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